Charges dropped in Moore robbery

The Moore American

October 01, 2008 10:55 am

— Prosecutors dropped charges last week against a Norman man accused of first-degree robbery and kidnapping in connection with the April 10 robbery of a Moore convenience store.
“I commend the district attorney’s office for looking at the evidence and doing the right thing by dismissing the charges,” said attorney Tim Kuykendall.
Verlon Leon Freeman, 40, was charged with robbing a convenience store at 714 NW 27th by holding a knife to the clerk’s throat and taking $300 from the register. The robber demanded the clerk drive him away, but witnesses intervened and chased the robber from the scene, according to court documents. Freeman later was arrested in the store’s vicinity, police said.
Although Freeman was identified by the clerk in a photo lineup and at the preliminary hearing, Kuykendall said four other witnesses were willing to come to court and testify that Freeman was not the person who robbed the store.
“He also took a polygraph test and passed it,” Kuykendall said.
The case was being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Austin.