URBANA – A Champaign man accused of fondling a woman in her apartment in Urbana in 2004 denied Thursday that he ever entered the woman's apartment and his wife backed him up.

Patrick Thompson, 39, of the 1800 block of Winchester Drive, and his wife of 13 years, Maria Thompson, both testified that Thompson was inside their apartment at 1702 E. Colorado Ave., U, at the time their neighbor said he entered her apartment uninvited and inappropriately touched her.

A jury was expected to deliberate the Class 4 felony charge of criminal sexual abuse against Thompson today.

Judge Harry Clem, who has presided over Thompson's two previous trials, on Wednesday dismissed a more serious charge of home invasion lodged against Thompson that would have meant a prison term upon conviction. Clem ruled that special prosecutor Michael Vujovich failed to present evidence to show that Thompson is not a police officer, one of the elements of home invasion.

Thompson, the founder of a community group called Visionaries Educating Youth and Adults aimed at helping at-risk young people, testified that he did not know the woman who lived next door.

She told police that on Aug. 24, 2004, as she was returning to her apartment from the laundry room about 6:30 a.m., Thompson was leaning over the railing outside his apartment and said he wanted to talk to her. She said she didn't have time, then went in her apartment and back to her bedroom to get ready for work.

She said she heard her door open, close and lock, and then saw Thompson, whose name she did not know at the time, coming down the hall toward her. She said he told her she knew she wanted to have sex with him then grabbed her, putting his hands on her breasts and down her pants. She said when her daughter cried from another room, Thompson stopped. He told her if she called police his wife would kill her.

The woman testified she then took her daughter to the baby-sitter's and went on to her job as a housekeeper at Provena Covenant Medical Center. It was there that she called police to report what had happened to her.

Urbana police officer Mike Hediger testified he found the woman, obviously upset and crying, in a supply closet. Based on information she gave him, Hediger put together a photo lineup of six men, one of whom was Thompson. She picked him from the lineup, and Hediger arrested Thompson later that day. He did not go to the woman's apartment nor did he collect any physical evidence.

Maria Thompson testified her husband was in the shower when she woke about 6:10 a.m. and that he was in their apartment at all times until 7:30 a.m., when he left to go to Parkland College.

Thompson did not present his wife as his alibi in his first trial in 2005, which ended in a hung jury. Thompson, who has a prior drug conviction, represented himself.

His attorney in his 2006 retrial, Harvey Welch, said Thompson had told him only on the morning the trial was to begin that his wife could provide an alibi.

Welch said he advised Thompson that putting that evidence on would not be good trial strategy because the fact that he hadn't brought it up in 2005 would be the subject of cross-examination by the prosecutor. Thompson was convicted in his 2006 retrial but in 2007 won a new trial.

Thompson's current attorneys, Robert Kirchner and Ruth Wyman, used the fact that Welch hadn't put on Maria Thompson as an alibi witness as evidence that Welch was ineffective.

Both Thompsons also testified Thursday that Patrick Thompson had injured his right index finger two days before the alleged attack on the woman. Both said his finger hurt so bad that it was in a splint and that he couldn't bend it.

The woman testified she saw no splint on Thompson's finger but jail employees said intake records indicated he had a finger injury when he was booked.