Judge upholds court's verdict

A Superior Court judge has rejected a motion for a new trial for a former Evans gynecologist sentenced last year to 20 years for inappropriately touching a 9-year-old girl.

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Jerry Jackson Lee II, 48, was denied the new trial by Judge J. Carlisle Overstreet at a hearing Thursday in Columbia County.

In 2007, a jury acquitted Lee of three counts of child molestation but found him guilty of aggravated sexual battery. Overstreet sentenced Lee to 20 years in prison, the maximum time allowed for aggravated sexual battery.

"I think the jury's verdict speaks for itself," Overstreet said in upholding the verdict and denying Lee a new trial.

Lee's attorney, Peter Johnson, asked the judge to "basically finish the job the jury started ... correct the verdict."

Johnson contended the verdict was not valid because the jury acquitted him on all other charges related to the 2005 incident. Johnson also raised issues of consent of the child and the lack of objections to an expert witness by Lee's defense attorney, Richard E. Allen, during the June 2007 the trial.

"The issue I find most interesting is ... the jury's acquittal of child molestation and conviction of aggravated sexual battery," Johnson said. "It is inconsistent, if you consider the fact this is a single event. ... It was part of the same act."

Overstreet said Johnson's arguments did not merit a new trial. He said that the trial evidence was sufficient, the charges were correct and he found no reversible error in the trial.

Lee is serving his sentence in Ware State Prison in Waycross, Ga.