CHARLESTON -Edward Kilday said he never touched a former Mattoon High School student.

Circuit Judge Gary Jacobs agreed.

Saying he found Kilday more believable than the former student who said Kilday performed oral sex on him, Jacobs on Wednesday acquitted Kilday of a charge of criminal sexual assault.

Kilday, 48, now living in LaSalle, was accused of sexually assaulting the then-16-year-old student in his office at the high school in December 2000 or January 2001, when he was the school's assistant principal.

But at the end of the two-day trial Wednesday, Jacobs said he saw inconsistencies between the former student's testimony and what he told police last year.

"The stories do not add up," Jacobs said. "They're different."

During his testimony Wednesday, Kilday denied assaulting the student but declined comment as he left the courtroom. He pleaded guilty earlier to charges of child pornography and public indecency, also involving incidents at the school, and Jacobs scheduled sentencing on those offenses for Oct. 1. Kilday remains free on bond.

Jacobs also upbraided Assistant State's Attorney Duane Deters and Mattoon police detective Jeff Branson for not providing evidence favoring Kilday to his attorney, Ron Tulin. Namely, Jacobs said Tulin shouldn't have discovered on his own that Mattoon High School teacher Michelle Hartbank denied that the former student gave her a note and a computer disk from Kilday's office as the student claimed.

Later, Deters said he didn't know if Branson asked Hartbank about the disk and the note. Branson said he didn't want to respond to Jacobs' comments.

The former student testified on Tuesday that about two weeks before the alleged assault he asked Kilday for a computer disk to use with Kilday's office computer to write a class paper. When he went to the desk drawer where Kilday said the disk was located, he found the disk as well as a note addressed to him that said the writer wanted to perform oral sex on him.

But on Thursday, Hartbank testified that the student never showed her the note or the disk, which tests showed included pornographic pictures. Jacobs said he found her believable and didn't buy Deters' argument she was lying now because she should have reported the matter when it happened.

Tulin said he thought Hartbank's testimony was crucial to the defense, which played up the former student's disciplinary problems and reputation for not being truthful.

"His credibility was not strong," Tulin said.

Dave Fopay can be reached at dfopay@;jg-tc.com or 348-5733.