Oak Harbor resident David Smith has gone through a lot this year. He was accused of an unthinkable crime, went through a difficult trial that ended with a hung jury and spent more than seven months in jail before all the charges were eventually dismissed.

But Smith, a 36-year-old sailor at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, isn’t angry about what happened to him.

“A lot of good has come out of this,” he said. “It’s made my family a lot closer.”

Smith’s ordeal began last January when his 13-year-old daughter accused him of raping and molesting her. Smith claims that the troubled girl made up the story so that she could go live with her mother in another state.

“It was a major nightmare,” he said. “I didn’t see any of this coming.”

Prosecutors charged Smith in Island County Superior Court Jan. 22 with the second-degree rape of a child, two counts of child molestation in the second degree and violation of a no-contact order. He was facing up to 16 years in prison if convicted. Judge Vickie Churchill ordered that Smith be held in lieu of a $250,000 bail bond, which meant Smith had to stay in jail until the case was resolved.

Both Smith and his accuser took the stand during the five-day trial in June. Smith said that the case was largely his word against hers since the physical evidence was inconclusive.

In the end, the jury deadlocked. Smith said the vote on the rape charge was 11 to 1, with only one juror believing he was guilty of the most serious count. The vote on the other charges was 10 to 2.

Judge Churchill declared a mistrial, but Smith remained in jail while the prosecution decided whether to retry him.

“They wouldn’t release me even though they didn’t have anything on me,” he said.

Finally on Aug. 27, Chief Criminal Prosecutor Colleen Kenimond filed a motion to dismiss the charges. It stated that she reviewed the case and consulted with an independent prosecutor, but concluded that she has insufficient evidence to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

“I still believe he did what he was accused of, but there’s no point in putting the girl through another trial if people aren’t going to believe her,” Kenimond said.

Kenimond was clearly disappointed in the outcome.

“It’s really hard for people to believe that these things happen in families and it’s hard for people to base their decision on the word of a teenager,” she said.

Smith said he was amazed when he found out that the charges were dropped and he was a free man.

“I ran down the hall at the jail, hooting and hollering,” Smith recalls. Later during a phone call with a relative, the reality of the whole experience set in and he cried like a baby.

Smith said his fellow inmates and the guards were astonished that he could be held in jail for so long, only to be set free. They told him it was a rare occurrence.

Smith said he changed a lot while in jail. He said he “actually found God” and plans to be baptized. He was humbled by fellow inmates and the challenges they’ve faced in their lives. He has a better relationship with his family, who supported him during the trial.

Smith is back at work at the Navy base, though his life will never be the same. He doesn’t want to leave the base, he said, because he feels vulnerable.

“It was a very scary experience for me,” he said. “I won’t ever get those seven months back.”