Michael VonAllmen's 30-year "nightmare" ended Friday in a Jefferson County courtroom when a judge threw out his 1982 conviction, ruling that there was clearly enough evidence to exonerate him.

"We'd like to think we do justice around here," said Judge Charles Cunningham, finding that the evidence presented by VonAllmen's attorney shows the actual rapist was most likely Ronald Tackett, a convicted felon resembling VonAllmen who died in a 1983 high-speed car chase involving Jefferson County police.

"The real bad guy got away from us," Cunningham said of Tackett. "I wish he were around so we could deal with that, but he's not."

Upon hearing Cunningham's decision, VonAllmen's family and friends clapped and the 57-year-old pulled out a handkerchief to wipe tears from his eyes.

"It meant the nightmare was over," said VonAllmen, who spent 11 years in prison for the conviction on rape, sodomy and robbery charges before being paroled in 1994. "The nightmare had turned into a dream ... and I am living it and not waking up."

The exoneration came despite an appeal from the victim of the 1981 rape, who said through her attorney that "she is just as sure today" that VonAllmen raped her as she was the day she identified him to police.

"She has lived in fear of this man and does not want him around her," her attorney, Gary Stewart, told Cunningham. But Cunningham said that if jurors had heard the evidence presented by Ted Shouse, who represented VonAllmen with the Kentucky Innocence Project and now represents him in private practice, they probably would not have convicted him.

Cunningham noted that Tackett was charged with a very similar rape in 1978, when a man abducted a 16-year-old girl from a gas station on Taylor Boulevard and took her to Iroquois Park, where he beat, raped and robbed her. The attacker was described as about 5-foot-9, weighing more than 200 pounds and having curly, dark-brown hair.

In the October 1981 case, the victim, then 22, was abducted at gunpoint outside a bar two blocks from Taylor Boulevard and taken to the park, where she was beaten, raped and robbed before being forced to drive her attacker back near the bar. She described her attacker as a man about 5-foot-11, weighing more than 200 pounds and having curly dark-brown hair.

The cases were "awful doggone close," Cunningham said.

And he pointed out that VonAllmen's appellate attorney convinced prosecutors to agree to give VonAllmen two polygraph tests after he had been convicted.

The results were so convincing that the polygraph examiner persuaded former Louisville Police Chief Richard Dotson to write a letter on his VonAllmen's behalf to the parole board.

"Dotson going to bat for a convicted rapist has never happened before," Cunningham said.

In addition, the victim in the 1981 case described her rapist's eyes as blue. Tackett had blue eyes, but VonAllmen's are brown.

Tackett also lived just blocks from where the 1981 victim was abducted, according to court records. And police took a gun from Tackett after arresting him on robbery charges just months after that rape.

Dismissing the verdict does not mean VonAllmen is home free. Technically, he still faces the charges in the 1981 rape case, meaning prosecutors must now decided whether to try him again.

The Jefferson Commonwealth's Attorney's office did not take a position on Shouse's motion to set aside the conviction, though the prosecution did argue there was no overwhelming evidence proving VonAllmen's innocence, such as DNA testing. And Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Kristi Gray urged Cunningham to use caution, arguing that setting aside a jury's verdict was a "serious matter."

Still, Gray said the Louisville Metro Police Department investigated the evidence put forward by Shouse, and the prosecution did not dispute the claims.

After the hearing, Gray said prosecutors were going to give the victim time to absorb the judge's decision before meeting with her and deciding whether to retry VonAllmen.

That would be difficult, Gray acknowledged. The police file in the VonAllmen case is missing, there is no useful physical evidence and the victim may not want to testify again.

Stewart said she "wants this over as much as anyone and does not want to relive this ordeal," though he did not completely rule out the possibility of her requesting a retrial.

And VonAllmen had some strong evidence on his side during the first trial.

Attorney David Busse, who was the public defender who represented VonAllmen at trial, pointed out during his questioning of police that officers never searched VonAllmen's apartment for a gun or anything stolen from the rape victim, did not look for fingerprints in the victim's vehicle and did not canvass the area or bar for witnesses.

Also, three witnesses testified that VonAllmen had been with them at the party the night of the rape, with one man saying VonAllmen had given him a ride home about 3:30 a.m. And VonAllmen's girlfriend at the time testified she talked with him by phone after that, eventually spending the night with him.

"I'm not at all worried about a second trial," Shouse said.

VonAllmen and his family were content Friday to enjoy the moment, one they have been waiting nearly three decades for.

"We always knew he didn't do it," said VonAllmen's father, Ray, adding that the family spent "all we could spend on attorneys" to free VonAllmen. "This is a wonderful day."

His troubles began shortly after the 1981 rape, when a tipster called police with two license-plate numbers the person said may have been on the attacker's vehicle.

Police found one of the plates was registered to a vehicle belonging to VonAllmen, and the other to a neighbor in his apartment complex. The neighbor's vehicle also resembled the description given by the victim.

According to court records from the original case, the victim quickly identified VonAllmen after seeing his picture in a photo pack. The trial boiled down to her word versus VonAllmen and his friends.

On Friday, VonAllmen reiterated that he doesn't blame the victim and that he felt bad she had to relive the ordeal.

"I regret that she is enduring this again, suffering through this again, but to correct this situation, this had to be done," he said.

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