Associated Press Writer

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - State prosecutors on Tuesday abruptly dropped their effort to send boxer Tony Ayala Jr. back to prison, saying that defense lawyers had severely damaged the credibility of the teenage girl who accused him of having sex with her.

The Bexar County District Attorney's Office withdrew its motion to revoke Ayala's 10-year probation for a September 2001 burglary conviction.

Ayala, a 39-year-old middleweight, had been in custody since early December after he was accused of twice having sex with the 14-year-old girl in November. He had denied the statutory rape allegation.

"You know the saying, 'The truth will set you free,'" said an elated Tony Ayala Sr. after state District Judge Maria Teresa Herr ordered his son freed from jail.

Tony Ayala Jr. left the courtroom through a side door after hugging his attorneys and waving to his supporters. He did not immediately speak to reporters.

"When you're facing these kinds of ramifications -- 10 years in prison, with so little of your boxing career left and maybe you'll be able to fight for a title -- obviously it's a great relief for Tony Ayala," said Jimmy Parks, his lead attorney.

The 14-year-old girl spent most of Monday on the witness stand, calmly testifying that she aggressively pursued Ayala sexually after meeting him at his training gym, and that she eventually was able to seduce him.

She said that the pair had sex once in the backseat of the boxer's car in early November and again in his parents' house in San Antonio during Thanksgiving week.

But under intense cross-examination, the eighth-grader from suburban San Antonio conceded that she had told several different versions of her story about sex with Ayala to police, her friends and other people.

The girl also acknowledged that she had falsely accused her stepfather of sexually molesting her for four years. She told defense lawyer Parks that she made up that story because she was mad at her stepfather.

On Tuesday, the judge asked the girl at one point if she knew what perjury was, and when she said she didn't, the hearing was stopped. A lawyer was later appointed to make sure the girl's legal interests were protected.

Michael Bernard, Bexar County's first assistant prosecutor, said he still believed the girl, but given her weakened credibility, it didn't make sense to continue with the hearing. He also said the girl's lawyer advised her to not continue with her testimony.

"We knew this case depended on this one witness," Bernard said. "Without her, there was nothing."

He said the state was obligated to investigate the girl's allegation and to try to corroborate it, "and then you follow your instinct."

Ayala's burglary trial in 2001 bore several key similarities to this week's hearing.

He had been charged with breaking into the San Antonio home in December 2000 with intent to commit rape, but the charge was reduced in a plea deal after Parks hurt the credibility of the case's key witness by exploiting a number of discrepancies between her testimony and her statements to police.

Ayala, who was shot in the shoulder during the burglary, served 90 days and was placed on probation for 10 years.

He previously served 16 years in a New Jersey prison after being convicted in 1983 of raping a schoolteacher. At the time of that conviction, he was considered a rising middleweight prospect.