YET ANOTHER FALSE EYEWITNESS IDENTIFICATION: Only 10 years in jail for an innocent man this time

The identification was "coached" by the police as usual, no doubt

"A 50-year-old Roxbury man was sentenced to 18 to 22 years in prison yesterday for raping three women in 1989, after DNA evidence proved his guilt and cleared a man wrongly convicted in one of the assaults, prosecutors said. The Roxbury man, Larry Taylor, pleaded guilty in Suffolk Superior Court to three counts of aggravated rape in connection with the assaults. They occurred in the Fenway neighborhood, in the late summer and early autumn of 1989.

In one of those assaults, Taylor broke into the Boylston Street apartment of a 19-year-old woman and raped her while holding a screwdriver to the back of her neck. Afterward, the victim mistakenly identified Neil J. Miller as her assailant. Miller was convicted and sentenced to state prison, where he served more than 10 years. In 2000, investigators tested DNA left by the rapist and determined that it was not Miller's. He was released from prison.

Miller is seeking up to $500,000 for his wrongful conviction under a state law passed by the Legislature last year. Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly has said he will not oppose Miller's claim.

Prosecutors attributed Taylor's conviction to the preservation of the DNA evidence, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said. ''This is testimony to power of DNA evidence," he said in a statement. ''It is also . . . testimony to the power of the human spirit of those who were victimized."

Taylor also pleaded guilty to raping a 44-year-old woman after climbing through a window on Beacon Street, and to entering a Norway Street apartment to rape a 35-year-old woman. The victim in the latter rape also accused Taylor of threatening her with a screwdriver. DNA testing showed the same man had committed all three rapes and investigators ultimately linked the assaults to Taylor. Authorities had collected Taylor's DNA when he completed a prison sentence for breaking and entering. State law required him to provide a sample upon his release.

In May 2003, Taylor broke into apartments on Marlborough Street in the Back Bay and, four months later on Columbus Avenue in the South Endprosecutors said. He was convicted of the Marlborough Street break in June. In addition to the rape sentence, Taylor was also sentenced to 8 to 9 years for the more recent break-ins, prosecutors said"

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