Living with a charge the evidence couldn’t support – part 2B

Q – Questioner/ Interviewer

A – Davis Long

AVA – Alleged Victim/Accuser

Q: What happened in that first court appearance?

A: It was an arraignment. I was finally given more insight into what was happening, but it wasn’t much. I was handed several sheets of paper. One was the probable cause statement, and the others were the complaints.

Q: What was going through your mind as you were reading over the information you were given?

A: Same thoughts as before. I didn’t know what to think. I was speechless, shock, disbelief, just trying to process what I was reading.

I read the probable cause statement, and it made no sense. None of it ever happened. I learned later that a probable cause statement is usually pretty lengthy and oddly this one was like 8 short simple sentences.

Then I read the complaint, and at the top of the page it said it believed I had committed crimes from February 2020 through May 2020. When I saw that, my heart dropped into my stomach. I remember that feeling.

Up to that point, I had assumed [AVA] was claiming something happened recently. So when I read that, I looked at the judge and said, “This says 2020.” I wasn’t clear with what I was asking; I thought maybe it was a mistake and it was supposed to say 2025.

The judge responded by saying there are no statute of limitations on cases like that.

I remember wanting to say more about how wrong all of this was, but I didn’t want to be confrontational with the judge. So all I said was, “I didn’t do this.”

They gave me a form to fill out for a public defender. I told them I thought I already had an attorney, but I filled it out anyway just in case.

While I was filling it out, I noticed there was a tier list showing different charges and what you would pay. I remember seeing that for capital murder the maximum was around $1,500—and right below that was sex crimes.

When I saw that, I just shook my head.

Q: Why?

A: Because it showed me the level of the allegation being made. I realized how easily someone can end up in that position based on a statement alone, without anything else being proven. This was the worst thing to be accused of outside of murder. At least with murder there would be a body to warrant an accusation.

Q: So you were still assuming you were arrested without evidence or proof?

A: Yes. At the time, I still believed there couldn’t be, because nothing remotely like that had ever happened, at least not with me.

That was confirmed later, when I learned the physical exam showed there was no physical or corroborating evidence supporting the sexual abuse allegation. Yet, I was still hurriedly arrested after nothing was found.

Q: Did anything else happen at that court appearance?

A: Not really. The other guy I was chained to went through the same process. He wasn’t being charged with what I was, and he seemed more nonchalant about it.

I wasn’t.

We all left shortly after and headed back to the jail. I was put back in the holding cell up front.

Q: Did you think maybe this was it? That this was just a formality and someone would be along shortly to let you out?

A: Honestly, yes. I thought this was being investigated, and I believed everyone was going to realize they had been lied to. I just knew any minute this was going to be over.

Shortly after, I was transferred back into a larger part of the jail and that’s when I received another surprise; Another layer of confusion.

A deputy came to serve me with a protection order involving my kids.

The reasons listed cited the same allegations – but it didn’t stop there. It also claimed I had cut [AVA]’s back with a knife and that there were scars. It said I had pointed guns at my children and threatened to kill them.

Q: What was your response to that?

A: I was in shock. I couldn’t understand what I was reading. I kept getting blindsided, and I had no idea why.

It was sickening.

I told the deputy I didn’t do any of this. He told me he was surprised when he heard about my arrest and said I had an uphill battle.

None of this made sense.

Nothing about the reasons in that protection order are founded. I love my kids, and I’ve never threatened them.

That part really threw me off. I was with at least one of my kids all day, every day. I was the parent taking and picking the kids up from school and showing up for school functions whenever a parent or volunteer was needed. At home, work or school, I was constantly around my kids,  If they were ever in danger, why would they be with me? Why would I be taking care of them?

And the claim about knife wounds, I assumed it must be based on some kind of marking on his back, but it didn’t come from me. My first thought was he got scraped up when we were cleaning out our fence about a month prior. But I didn’t remember him complaining about getting hurt so that didn’t add up. So how could I be blamed for injuries just because someone says so?

At that point, I just kept getting more lost. Still nothing made sense.

And now, after being served with that, I had a completely separate case to deal with – all because of the same allegations.

Q: At what point did you become overwhelmed with all the different aspects of this case?

A: Since the beginning. I think I’ve just stayed in a state of being overwhelmed.

Even now, I’m constantly overwhelmed thinking about my kids and what’s happening with them.

I think it was a day later when I finally learned what all of this was about. I met with my attorney, and he gave me a copy of [AVA]’s interview with the CAC.

Twenty-three pages.

It was the most insane, alarming, disgusting thing I have ever read.

It started with the interviewer telling [AVA] there was only “one rule,” that whatever they talk about “has to be real,” and that it “just has to be the truth.”

That rule was immediately violated and the system meant to protect real victims – was immediately abused and undermined.

The story, as he told it, goes back to May 4, 2025, when he claims he was talking to my mother-in-law and “snapped.”

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