Santee

A jury acquitted a sheriff’s deputy Thursday of molesting an 11-year-old girl, who testified that she may have dreamed the entire incident.

Anthony Bier, 29, a five-year department veteran, hugged his attorney and wept with joy upon hearing the verdict.

The Superior Court jury rendered its verdict after day and a half of deliberating over a single count of molestation, which allegedly occurred last May.

Afterward, one juror said that the incident described by the girl, now 12, was not believable. The girl testified last week that she awoke to find she was being forced to fondle a man in her bedroom. She could not identify Bier as the man, saying she could only see a shadow.

Bier, who was in the Santee home at the time of the alleged incident, denied committing the offense.