'Gap' Clears Rape Suspect

Posted: May 20, 1987

A gap in the testimony of a 22-year-old rape victim has helped acquit a Wynnefield man of the offense.

The victim, a Temple University student, testified she recalled Craig Poles, 31, having a "big gap" between his upper front teeth when he abducted her from a parking lot of a Wynnefield apartment building while she was delivering pizza on Feb. 28, 1986.

Defense attorney Thomas W. Moore Jr. told the jury that Poles "does not have a gap between his teeth." He called the woman's testimony a case of ''mistaken identity."

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Rooney produced evidence showing that two months after Poles was arrested, he had dental work done in prison.

The records, however, did not indicate what type of work was done on Poles' teeth.

The jury returned a verdict late Monday.

A police officer who arrested Poles testified he could not recall whether Poles had a space between his teeth.

Moore said yesterday that while Poles was in prison, the victim identified another man as her attacker, mistakenly believing Poles had been freed on bail.

The woman said after she was kidnapped, she was driven to the parking lot of the Overbrook train station, where her assailant placed a gun at her head and "pulled my hair and said, 'You're gonna do what I tell you.' "

The jury acquitted Poles on charges of rape, kidnapping, aggravated assault and terroristic threats.

Poles, of Montgomery Avenue near 54th Street, remains jailed, awaiting sentence on a burglary charge. He recently completed a short prison term for a robbery in Lower Merion Township, according to Rooney.

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