A Clymer woman who was found guilty of downloading child pornography in an attempt to frame her estranged husband has been granted a petition for post conviction collateral relief, and will get a new trial.
46-year-old Meri Jane Woods was sentenced in December of 2014 to nine to 23-and-a-half months in jail, and her appeal was denied by State Superior Court in 2016.
In August of 2013, Woods went to the state police barracks in White Township with a computer, asking that it be examined because she suspected her husband, Matthew, had downloaded child pornography. Court documents showed that the images in question included underage children engaged in sex acts, and Woods claimed that some of them involved her husband and daughter. However, Corporal John Roche was able to establish through computer time stamps that the images had been downloaded two weeks after Matthew Woods had moved out of the family home on his own accord, and Roche further determined that Meri Jane Woods had downloaded the images, and that it would be impossible to identify Matthew Woods or the daughter in the images.
In granting Meri Jane Woods’ petition for relief, Judge Thomas Bianco vacated the sentence and ordered a new trial. Woods is scheduled for Criminal Call next Friday.
