The girl who testified that she was molested by Aleck J. Carpitcher, then took it all back, was "threatened, intimidated and coerced" to change her story, a Roanoke County judge has found.

But in the end, Circuit Judge Robert "Pat" Doherty could not tell which version of the girl's testimony -- which has taken three forms over the past six years -- is the truth.

Although the 17-year-old insisted while giving her latest account from the witness stand in June that no one had pressured her to say Carpitcher is innocent, "her veracity is questionable," Doherty wrote in an Oct. 6 report to the Virginia Court of Appeals. "The court cannot determine, under any evidentiary standard, the truthfulness of her most recent testimony."

Also suspect is the girl's testimony at a 1999 trial, which resulted in a 38-year prison sentence for Carpitcher. "Having testified differently about the same issues on three different occasions, she is no longer credible," Doherty wrote. "The court cannot determine which, if any, of the three versions of her testimony is truthful."

The Court of Appeals must now decide whether to grant Carpitcher a new trial in one of the first proceedings under a new Virginia law that allows convicted felons to present newly discovered evidence that previously had been barred by the state's 21-day rule.

Earlier this year, after attorneys for the Innocence Project sought relief for Carpitcher under the law, the appellate court sent the case back to Doherty to answer two questions: Did the girl recant, and if so, was her new story the product of "duress, undue influence or inappropriate pressure from others?"

Doherty listed a number of factors that might have influenced the recantation: numerous interviews of the girl by social workers, a psychologist, police officers, defense lawyers and prosecutors; a polygraph examination; and a large amount of media attention devoted to the case.

Perhaps the biggest influence on the girl was her mother -- Carpitcher's girlfriend -- who has never believed her daughter was sexually abused. The mother testified that she told her daughter "more times than [she] can remember" after Carpitcher's trial that she was tired of her lies and that if she didn't tell the truth about what happened, she could pack her bags and go live with her father.

At the time, the girl had a deep attachment to her mother and did not want to live with her father, Doherty noted.

It was during an argument with her mother in March 2000 that the girl first recanted.

She has given different versions since then -- at times saying that Carpitcher once propositioned her but did not molest her -- before eventually testifying in June that he did none of the things for which the jury convicted him.

Whether by her mother or others, the girl was "threatened, intimidated, and coerced to comply with the various subtle, and not so subtle, demands that she change her testimony," Doherty's three-page report stated.

Carpitcher's attorneys have argued that the mother never encouraged her daughter to lie, but in fact implored her simply to tell the truth.

Although the mother testified in June that she made the statements, her daughter maintained that she had never been threatened by her mother.

When she recanted, the girl explained that she was jealous of the time Carpitcher was spending with her mother so she made up the allegations to get him out of the house.

Until last year, Carpitcher had been barred from raising her recantation under the 21-day rule, which prohibited newly discovered evidence unless it is presented within three weeks of a case's conclusion.

The General Assembly passed a law last year that allows convicted felons to bypass the rule.