Faced with contradictory and inconsistent testimony from the seven-year-old alleged victim in the case, Circuit Judge Rex Henry Ogle dismissed sexual battery charges against a Del Rio man on Wednesday.

Charles Duane Finchum, 54, had been charged with two counts of aggravated sexual battery of the then-six-year-old girl in connection with two incidents which allegedly occurred at his Del Rio home in 2007. Finchum denied the allegations, and an eight-man, four-woman jury was chosen on Wednesday morning to hear the case.

The young alleged victim was the only witness to testify before Judge Ogle stepped in and dismissed the case after Assistant District Attorney General Tonya Thornton said the girl's testimony was the bulk of the state's case against Finchum.

The seven-year-old's hour-long testimony was inconsistent from the witness stand on Wednesday afternoon and it contradicted previous statements she had given investigators for both the state and defense during previous interviews.

"The testimony had changed," Judge Ogle told the jury after dismissing the charges. "That's what I think is the right thing to do in this case.

"The question is whether the testimony of this child is enough to sustain a conviction and expose a man to a long prison term," the judge said. "And I don't think it was enough."

Prosecutor Thornton told the jury in her opening statement that Finchum was accused of inappropriately touching the girl while she and her family were visiting the defendant for a cook-out in October 2007. The incidents are alleged to have occurred in a "tool shed" or out-building on the Finchum property.

The alleged offenses involved sexual touching only, Thornton said, and there were no witnesses to the incidents.

"There were no witnesses to the exact touching," the prosecutor told jurors. "They went off into a tool shed; they were alone. There's no DNA, no doctor's report, and no other evidence to support her testimony. Just her testimony itself."

After the cook-out, the girl told her mother about the alleged incidents with Finchum, and the family reported it to the Cocke County Sheriff's Department and the Tennessee Department of Children's Services a few days later.

Assistant District Public Defender Keith Haas told the jury that his client denies that any inappropriate touching occurred that day. Haas suggested that the girl either is not telling the truth or that she misinterpreted some of Finchum's actions.

"There were some accusations made, and there was a denial by Mr. Finchum," Haas said. "And we stand here today for a jury trial. That's where we're at."

When questioned by prosecutor Thornton, the girl told the jury that, during the cook-out at Finchum's camper home in the Del Rio community, she and Finchum went alone into the tool shed, which she described as "a work building," and the defendant reached under her clothing and touched her buttocks.

In a second incident inside Finchum's camper, the defendant made the girl touch his genitals, according to the seven-year-old's testimony.

But the girl contradicted her own testimony, placing the incidents both inside and outside; placing both incidents inside the tool shed, then saying one of them occurred inside the camper; saying she and Finchum were not alone when the touching occurred; and making other statements which contradicted what she had previously told investigators.

When questioned by Haas, the girl admitted that, when she said both incidents occurred outside, she had not told the truth to a defense investigator because "me and my mom didn't know him."

The girl also said she and her mother had "practiced" her testimony before the court appearance, and Haas raised the possibility that the witness had been coached.

After the alleged victim had testified for about an hour on Wednesday, Judge Ogle removed the jury from the courtroom and said he was inclined to dismiss the charges against Finchum.

"After that [testimony], do you see it as anything but futile to go on?" the judge asked the attorneys.

Both Thornton and Haas agreed that the alleged victim's testimony was not enough to support a guilty finding beyond a reasonable doubt, and Haas asked that the charges be dismissed. Judge Ogle agreed.

The judge then called the jury back into the courtroom and explained what had happened.

"To her great honor and integrity, [prosecutor Thornton] has agreed that there are some inconsistencies in what [the girl] told earlier and what was testified to here today," Judge Ogle explained to the panel. "Something may have happened here; I don't know. But I think you will agree with me that there is not enough evidence to support a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."

Despite the dismissal of the charges on Wednesday, Thornton's legal troubles are not over. He is facing an additional charge of aggravated sexual battery in connection with a similar allegation by another young girl.

The state will announce the status of that case on August 24, and a trial date was tentatively set in September.