REEDSPORT (AP) — An Oregon woman has acknowledged what investigators and a federal jury knew all along: A 1994 Reedsport arson was not an anti-Semitic hate crime.

Sherry Davenport, formerly Sherry Armstrong, acknowledged her role in a sworn affidavit last month as part of a federal court motion to end her post-prison supervision earlier than planned.

Armstrong was sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison after a 1995 jury convicted her of conspiracy, arson and fraud, along with her then-husband Lee Armstrong and their friend Clarence Davenport. The Armstrongs divorced in June 2006 and she married Davenport six months later.

The three always maintained their innocence, despite a videotape that showed Sherry Armstrong leaving the building and the trio driving away less than two minutes before smoke began pouring from the Armstrongs’ second-floor bedroom.

The FBI made the videos in an effort to catch suspects in reported hate crimes against the trio. Prosecutors contended at trial that the three set the apartment on fire to collect insurance money and staged earlier hate crimes against themselves to provide an explanation for the arson. Evidence showed the three faced eviction for failing to pay rent, and that they were delinquent on other bills while buying fire insurance policies just nine days before the fire.

At a 1996 press conference before starting her sentence, Sherry Armstrong said the FBI or others involved in the prosecution edited the videotape to place them at the scene just before the fire was reported.

“We think the video was messed with,” she said at the time.

She now admits her role.

“The reason for the affidavit is we are tired and just want this endless nightmare to be over,” she wrote in a recent e-mail to The Register-Guard. “Please remember, the admission was in relation to the fire, the hate crime was real, it happened. Living with that kind of hate caused some poor judgments to be made on our part, one of which was to fight our case in court and the media.”

Former Reedsport police Chief John Smart, who learned of the woman’s admission this week, said he appreciates the belated confession because the trio had so strongly denied involvement.

Smart recalls the city being upset with the vandalism that preceded the fire, particularly when a large swastika spray-painted on the building was visible from state Highway 38.

“There was a large contingent of people, led by our council and mayor, that wanted to paint it and clean it up right away,” he said. “But (the Armstrongs and Davenport) didn’t want that until the news got there. That was kind of the beginning of the odd feeling for me.”