Jesse Dailey, the subject of my 2001 book “Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode The Internet Out Of Idaho,” met me and Maria Thursday in New York for lunch. It was the first time I had seen Jesse in some years, the first time we sat face to face since his arrest last month on charges of sexual assault:  groping two young girls in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. He is also charged with resisting arrest and assaulting an undercover police officer. Jesse was on the news for days, his face all over the papers and TV. He is awaiting trial, the prosecution wants to send him to state prison for years.

Jesse had never met Maria, he joined us in the hotel lobby, we walked to a nearby Thai restaurant. It was painful in some ways, very intense and very good for me. I love Jesse, ever since he began e-mailing me poetic and defiant messages about individuality when I was at Rolling Stone, prompting me to fly out to Idaho to meet him. From the first moment I laid eyes on him, – we had lunch in a dingy Chinese restaurant in Caldwell, Idaho –  I knew I would write a book about him, and I cannot possibly describe the intimacy and connection between the author and subject of a book.

I spent several years talking to Jesse, interviewing him, traveling to see him, following his determined and courageous journey out of a poor town in Idaho to Chicago, and then on to New York City, where he has been putting together a solid life for himself. He has a career as a programmer, he is engaged to be married, he is in a strong and committed relationship. It is his crisis, not mine, but it is wrenching to see someone who worked so hard to improve his life – he got himself through the University of Chicago on an full scholarship and pennies to his name – in such jeopardy.

Maria didn’t say much during the lunch, but she said it was as if Jesse and I had never been out of touch, we just seemed to connect with one another.

We didn’t talk about our relationship, this isn’t the time. It was clear we wanted to see one another. Jesse is struggling to make sense of his arrest and upcoming trial, he is terrified of what might happen, he is passionate and clear about his innocence. Jesse and I did not have a second’s discomfort with one another, we slipped right back into our old relationship, me peppering him with questions, he answering them fully and articulately and very directly. He showed none of the mannerisms of the evasive or dishonest person – sweating, turning away, fidgeting, unable to make eye contact. He looked me in the eye and answered every question as he always did, clearly and without any hesitation.

I was a journalist for a long time, I have a good ear and eye for lying, I have asked Jesse a million questions in our time together, I have never known him to lie or exaggerate or doctor a fact to make it self-serving. He is almost incapable of calculation, even when it might serve him best.

I don’t have the time or heart to review the case against Jesse, save it to say if his version of events is correct, he is trapped in a truly Orwellian nightmare, a horror story, he is living in a Twilight Zone, a suspended space of unreality and danger. His life is at a crossroads, it is a dire time for him, to risk being labeled a sex offender in America. At times, I thought of Jesse as a son, I can only imagine the helplessness his parents feel at the nightmare that has engulfed him.

I simply cannot fathom that these charges are true, Jesse has done nothing since I have known him but work day and night to overcome anxiety and depression and poverty and struggle to build a meaningful life for himself with strong friendships, work he loves and a loving relationship. I am not a psychic or a shrink, but I simply cannot imagine him throwing all of that way to do what the police accuse him of doing.

I had the strong sense of someone who was authentic and direct and credible, I certainly believed his account fully and accepted it without hesitation. I have no doubt of his innocence. Of all of the thousands of questions I have asked Jesse, every single one of his answers turned out to be truthful and genuine. He asked if I would testify for him as a character witness and I said of course I would, and he invited me to attend some of the court proceedings, I gathered it would be meaningful to him to see me there. I will do that over the next weeks and months, my daughter lives just a few blocks from the courthouse where Jesse will be tried, I can stay at her apartment when I go down to the trial. Jesse is studying the law, the rules of evidence, the statutes governing police conduct.

Jesse told me he is working to keep steady – the prosecutor wants him to spend years in a state prison – but he has to fight back panic, pure terror,  when a police car drives by or he has to deal with some legal news, it is a kind of post-traumatic stress symptom, I think. The morning of his arrest, three detectives jumped out of a car with guns pointed at him, shouting to him to get down. As far as I know, Jesse has never committed a violent act in his life.

At the end of our lunch, I told him he seemed to be handling things well, and he laughed and said everyone tells him that, but it is now what he feels. I understand his point, it is not for me to tell him what he feels, it is for him to tell me. You can read his story here.

I know, what you mean I said, I know. I have no real advice to give you, I said, except this: have faith in yourself, 100 times a day, every day. This is not how the story ends for you, this is not what you fought so hard for these past years. You have many things working for you – a loving partner, a good lawyer, a supportive family, loyal friends, resources, a lot of strength. You will come through to the other side, you just have to choose to believe it.

I do.