OLIVER JOVANOVIC, the patsy in the Cybersex trial farce, broke his

silence yesterday and told how his life was torn into tiny pieces.

"I am devastated knowing that I am here in jail and knowing I did

nothing wrong, nothing," he told me in his first-ever interview.

He was talking in the drab visiting room of Rikers Island, where he is

awaiting sentencing May 6.

That's when Jovanovic faces a mandatory 15-years-to-life sentence for

kidnapping and sexually abusing a 21-year-old Barnard student.

His conviction in the courtroom of Judge William Wetzel is the worst

miscarriage of justice since they abolished lynching.

"Yes, I would be bitter under normal circumstances, but I am not,"

Jovanovic told me.

"You see, I really believe the justice system works. I believe I will

win on appeal.

"That is the only thing that keeps me going . . . otherwise, yes, I

would be very bitter.

"My family has spent huge amounts of money on my defense, they are under

a lot of stress. It hurts me a lot for them to have to go through this.

"My girlfriend has given up her job to fight for me and is now living

off savings. My brother has left his business in Seattle to be here for

me.

"My career as a microbiologist has been destroyed. My name, my family

name, has been smeared for all time.

"I am facing a minimum of 15 years in prison and maybe more. Yes, my

life is in ruins, and I did nothing.

"Someone can just make an accusation with no proof and then this?

"Perhaps the justice system didn't work perfectly the first time around

for me, but I do have faith in this system."

I hope he is right, because if this 31-year-old kid goes to the slammer,

I will lose a lot of faith.

Let's refresh everyone's memory about this putrid case.

On Dec. 5, 1996, Jovanovic was arrested for kidnapping and sexually

abusing this Barnard student who loves fairy tales.

The couple had met on the Internet, and she burned up the lines talking

about the ecstasy of the pains of hell.

She talked about wanting to make a "snuff film."

That is the highly attractive art form where a person actually gets

killed on film during a sexual act.

This female Barnard student is a real candidate for a convent.

I have always referred to the woman who accused him of these charges as

Madame X.

It's a time-honored journalistic ethic not to identify a victim of a sex

crime.

I won't break that ethic, but I am sorely tempted, because this woman

has caused more pain than a generation of 19th-century dentists.

The trial was a farce.

Under the sex-attack shield law, attempts to introduce testimony on her

background - and her highly relevant e-mail sent over the Internet to

Oliver and another boyfriend - were arrogantly denied by Judge Whacko

Wetzel.

Outrageous judicial error. Every judge I've talked to says so.

Then to top it all off, Jovanovic wanted to take the stand in his own

defense.

But Whacko Wetzel announced that none of the facts of that night - you

know, the conversation they had, the horrific e-mail she sent him -

could be spoken about by Jovanovic.

"I couldn't even take the stand in my own defense," Jovanovic told me

yesterday.

"I couldn't even start to even give a hint of what happened that night."

Madame X claimed she had been tied up - after she got undressed of her

own free will - and was sexually assaulted by a wooden baton.

When she was medically examined, there was not a physical trace of what

would have had to be a terrible physical trauma.

I mean nothing.

The prosecutors didn't even call their own medical examiners. And

Jovanovic's lawyer, Jack Litman, wasn't permitted to call them to report

there had been no sexual abuse.

Judge Whacko Wetzel just wouldn't allow it.

"When her panties were examined, they found a pubic hair. Examinations

showed it didn't belong to me and it didn't belong to her. Those are

straight facts," Jovanovic told me.

"Nothing happened, I mean nothing happened."

What would he tell his accuser if he came face to face with her now?

"Not a thing," he said. "I would keep on walking.

"These moments in jail, well, I just don't wish it to happen to any

other man, well, any other human being.

"I did not do what this woman claims I did. This was a voluntary,

consensual evening and nothing more."

Well, Judge Whacko Wetzel had another take on that.

When he charged the jury, he actually said consent is no excuse for

assault.

If that was so, Dr. Jack Kevorkian would be making small ones out of big

ones on a rock pile in a state prison.

Jovanovic's co-counsel, Jeff Newman, told me: "With due respect to the

judge, Oliver went into this with one arm and one leg tied behind his

back.

"The very basis of the Sixth Amendment gives the right of someone to

face his accuser, and this was denied. He wasn't allowed to talk about

the present relationship of that night.

"He wasn't allowed his day in court, and this is very disturbing.

Shockingly unfair about something that didn't happen."

Newman is not only a lawyer but a family friend.

And that family is made up of Oliver's pop, Svetozar Jovanovic, a chess

master, mom Sabina, one of New York's finest violinists, and brother

Adrian, a computer whiz.

"Me?" said Oliver Jovanovic, who has exchanged his suit for a khaki

prison jumpsuit.

"I would have been a doctor of microbiology right now, graduated from

Columbia. I got my masters in Chicago, but now I would have had my

doctorate."

Now he is inmate No. 3109800508, facing up to life in prison because

some crazy woman and some crazy judge went on the same loony-tune train.

"It really has ruined my life. But I will get through it. I cope here

with the belief that it will turn out OK in the end," he said. How does

a white-bread intellectual lad cope with Rikers?

"You give respect to the other inmates and the correction officers, and

you get respect," he said.

"But it is still hard for me to believe I am here. It's been 10 days

since the conviction, so I am starting to get the idea where I am.

"But as tough as it is, I refuse to get bitter. I believe in the system,