NNSL (Oct 20/97) - A 39-year-old Inuvik man who has served five years of a 10-year sentence for sexually assaulting a woman three times has been acquitted on one of the three convictions after his lawyer introduced new DNA evidence.

Herman Kaglik of Inuvik learned on Tuesday that he will get a new trial on two other charges that he sexually assaulted the woman prior to the 1992 allegations, alleged crimes for which he was sentenced to four years in prison. He was sentenced to another six years after a 1994 trial for the two other charges of sexual assault, sentences which the NWT Court of Appeal overturned in a unanimous decision last week.

Kaglik's lawyer, Valdis Foldats, requested DNA testing on a pair of semen-stained panties that were entered as evidence against him at the 1992 trial. No DNA testing was performed on them then -- the science was not as advanced back then -- but the panties were used as evidence against Kaglik.

"The results did not match a sample of blood purportedly given by my client. As you can imagine, this is a dramatic piece of evidence," Foldat wrote in a letter requesting the appeal dated April 7, 1997.

Kaglik, who maintained his innocence from the start, was freed pending the appeal nine days later. A date for his new trial has not been set.