Aleck J. Carpitcher has failed to show he is innocent of sex crimes that his accuser now says she made up, a federal judge in Roanoke has ruled.

In an opinion earlier this month, Judge Jackson Kiser dismissed a habeas corpus petition filed by Carpitcher, who has been trying to get out of prison ever since a girl said nearly five years ago that she testified falsely against him.

Kiser's opinion leaves few remaining avenues open to Carpitcher and The Innocence Project, a network of lawyers that has been championing his case - so far with little success - in the state and federal courts.

The next chapter will likely play out in the Virginia Court of Appeals. Carpitcher has filed a petition with the appellate court under a new law that allows him to present the girl's recantation as evidence of his innocence. Before the law took effect last year, Carpitcher had been barred by the state's 21-day rule from raising the girl's change of story.

The rule, which was the nation's toughest restriction on new evidence before the General Assembly loosened it, prohibited a court from hearing newly discovered evidence of innocence unless it came to light within 21 days after trial.

Carpitcher's federal habeas petition, which asserted that his constitutional rights were violated, was filed last year before the new state law gave him his first real chance to raise the issue of innocence.

In dismissing the habeas, Kiser ruled that Carpitcher failed to show that his trial lawyer was ineffective, or that prosecutors withheld information crucial to his defense. The judge also commented on the broader issue, ruling that Carpitcher had failed to prove he did not molest his girlfriend's daughter.

The girl - who was 11 when she told a Roanoke County jury that Carpitcher repeatedly molested her over a six-month period - later said she made up her testimony. The girl said she was jealous of the time Carpitcher was spending with her mother. She figured that sexual allegations would get him kicked out of the house they all shared, she said, but had no idea her words would lead to a 38-year prison sentence.

Her testimony in 1999 was the only evidence the jury heard, and Carpitcher's lawyers have argued that keeping him locked up based on her now dubious credibility would be a miscarriage of justice.

"However, the victim has not recanted all of her trial testimony," Kiser wrote in his opinion. In one of her post-trial statements, the girl repeated her story that Carpitcher made a sexual comment to her - for which he was convicted of taking indecent liberties - but said he did not actually molest her. The later allegations led to Carpitcher's aggravated sexual battery and sexual penetration convictions.

But at other times, the girl has taken back all the allegations she made, said Christopher Amolsch, a Fairfax County lawyer who represents Carpitcher.

Kiser also noted that a medical evaluation corroborated the girl's abuse allegation. A doctor who examined the girl was not called to testify at Carpitcher's trial. State attorneys have said the girl's mother - who at the time sided with Carpitcher - told prosecutors that the test results did not confirm her daughter was molested.

"Considering all the evidence against Carpitcher and his failure to provide any evidence in support of his allegation of actual innocence, the court concludes that a reasonable juror" would convict him even today, Kiser wrote.

Since going to federal court, The Innocence Project has obtained a second opinion on the medical examination. Their expert witness maintains that a healed tear to the girl's hymen could have been caused by something other than the digital penetration she alleged at trial.

Although Amolsch said he will appeal Kiser's decision, the next ruling could come from the state courts.

In December, the Virginia Court of Appeals decided not to summarily dismiss Carpitcher's innocence claim. It gave the attorney general's office 60 days to file a response to Carpitcher's argument that the recantation should set him free.

"I have said from day one that I am not going to stop fighting until Aleck Carpitcher is out of jail for a crime that he didn't commit," Amolsch said.