06:15 PM PST on Wednesday, January 28, 2004

By LORI MATSUKAWA / KING 5 News

SEATTLE - A Seattle man, now living in California, was jailed for eight months for a crime he didn't commit because three 11-year-old girls in Orange County accused the man of stalking and attacking them.

KING Eric Nordmark spent eight months in jail awaiting trial because he couldn't afford the bail.

Eric Nordmark, 36,was homeless and stayed in jail because he couldn't make the $50,000 bail. He spent eight months in jail awaiting trial.

Police said it was all a lie because one of the girls came home an hour late from school and was afraid of getting in trouble.

“It was a very rough time,” said Nordmark. “This was a very rough thing for me”

The girls accused said he attacked them, scratching their necks and pulling their hair. Garden Grove police showed a photo line-up to each girl separately and they all fingered the same suspect – Nordmark, who was number five.

“To sit there in a cell and a very real fear of going down for a crime you didn't do - there's nothing you can do,” he said.

But during the trial last Thursday, a girl who testified she was attacked later said the story was all made up.

“In addition to that, she scraped herself she had scrapes on her leg and she claimed soreness to her nead and neck which were all consistent with her being assaulted,” said Lieut. Mike Handfield of the Garden Grove Police Dept.

Nordmark, who could have gone to prison for five years and been marked for life as a sex offender - is not bitter.

“If I don't forgive, I'm punishing myself and that's not an option,” he said.

Now police and prosecutors are considering possible criminal charges against the three girls.