KISSIMMEE, Fla. – A judge on Tuesday dismissed testimony from a new witness who said he falsely identified inmate Michael Rigby in a 2008 attempted robbery , leaving Rigby’s conviction in place despite the witness’s recantation.

Jonathon McCalister told the court he lied when he previously identified Rigby as the man who tried to rob a woman at a CVS in Kissimmee.

“I knew that wasn’t the man that did it,” McCalister said. “Why didn’t you come forward before? Because I was afraid of the police, I was afraid of what would happen. I mean, I was still young at that time; I didn’t have the knowledge that I have now.”

Rigby, who escaped from the maximum-security Osceola County Jail in 2010 by removing a toilet and crawling through plumbing, has long maintained his innocence. He was recaptu

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