Ex-probation officer acquitted of rape

It took a jury just a little more than a hour Friday to find Stephen Mills not guilty of rape.

Judge Kathleen Bidegaray sent jurors in for deliberations just before noon, and they returned just after 1 p.m. with the acquittal.

The verdict followed an emotional summation to the jury by Mills' attorney, Jeremy Yellin, who told jurors he was going to cry no matter what the verdict was.

"Tears of joy if you acquit him, tears of sorrow if you convict," he said.

Yellin said the victim concocted the story because she was angry at Mills, a youth probation officer, for recommending that her son be plac...