by Mahanaz Ebadi and Makisha Singh
The court was in session on January 28, 2015, as the prosecution called their first witness to the stand, the mother of the alleged victim. Judge David Rosenberg and the jury carefully listened as the prosecuting attorney asked the alleged victim’s mother several questions about the relationship between Guzman and the alleged victim.
The jury learned that the mother had two children from a previous relationship, the alleged victim and a brother. The mother then gave birth to another boy with Guzman, and soon she moved her children in with him, from Vacaville to Winters.
The mother explained that the alleged victim was a good daughter, never lied, always did well in school, and that their relationship was like that of any other normal mother and daughter. The mother soon also moved in with Guzman and the children in Winters, and continued to keep her oldest kids in contact with their biological father.
Both the alleged victim and her brother referred to Guzman as “Manuel,” and both maintained distant relationships with him. At a certain point in time, the mother testified, Guzman began drinking profusely and at one point called the alleged victim a “whore, just like” her mother.
After this incident, the mother took it upon herself to leave Guzman and to go to Bakersfield where her sister resided. After just a week she found herself back in Winters with Guzman, while he continued to promise her that he had changed.
The mother explained that things began to change once the alleged victim went through puberty and became fully developed, physically. She quickly began to see a difference in the relationship between her daughter and Guzman.
The alleged victim would obey Guzman and converse with him, and but not with her mother. The mother stated that the alleged victim’s attitude changed completely, and she often became very angry with her mother. The mother added that Guzman would tell the alleged victim to massage his feet and neck, and comb his hair.
At one point, the mother came from work to find Guzman and her daughter lying on the couch together, hugging one another. When the mother pulled the alleged victim away from Guzman, she noticed that “his penis was erect.”
The mother stated that Guzman and the alleged victim would hug one another and, any time the mother was present, both individuals would become nervous and let go of one another. She informed her daughter not to get close to Guzman, and her daughter disregarded her advice, claiming that she already knew that.
After moving to Bakersfield, the mother’s sister told her that the alleged victim behaved suspiciously when on the computer. When the mother questioned the alleged victim about this, she discovered that the alleged victim and Guzman had been emailing each other since the move to Bakersfield.
Because the mother does not speak English, she had a counselor at a domestic violence center read the emails to her. The counselor alerted the mother of the inappropriate context of the emails and called the police.
In one of the emails Guzman told the alleged victim that she had forgotten her underwear back at his home in Winters, and said that he had them with him in his bed so he could remember her. There were a total of 899 emails.
When the police officer responded to the counselor’s phone call, the officer advised the mother to take the alleged victim to the hospital. However, the mother said that the counselor told her not to do that because it had already been awhile since the alleged sexual intercourse had occurred and a doctor would not be able to tell if she had lost her virginity.
The alleged victim first told the police officer that she and Mr. Guzman only held hands, but the mother had suspicions that there was more going on. She pointed out that the alleged victim referred to Guzman in their emails as “baby.”
This case got more complicated when the mother filed for a restraining order against Guzman. The attorneys argued over whether or not the restraining order was filed before or after the mother learned that Guzman had filed for custody of their mutual son.
The mother said she filed the restraining order against Guzman when the alleged victim, upon hearing that Guzman wanted custody of the younger boy, said that he couldn’t or shouldn’t get custody because he was bad, and she admitted that he had put his penis inside her vagina.
The defense attorney paid a lot of attention to when this restraining order was filed because he believes the mother filed it after hearing that Mr. Guzman wanted custody of the youngest child, which could imply that the mother is using a story of molestation in order to help her obtain custody of her son.
The defense attorney brought out documents that were sent to the mother regarding Guzman wanting custody, and asked the mother if those were the documents she received.
The mother looked them over and said yes, and then later, when the attorney pointed out the date on them, she reversed her answer and said no, she did not receive documents with that date. However, the judge agreed that the documents were in English and since the mother doesn’t speak English, it would be difficult for her to identify them.
The mother later mentioned that the mother of Mr. Guzman’s other child had accused Guzman of touching her nine-year old daughter. This was new information to the court. The mother said she believed Guzman when he told her, at the beginning of their relationship, that the accusations were lies, but now she believes they were true.
The mother also testified that Guzman would assault her by pulling her hair, yanking her clothes off, and forcing her to have sex with him on a daily basis. The defense attorney responded to this information by asking very specific questions about Mr. Guzman’s penis.
He asked about the size and then asked if it hurt her when he forced her to have sex with him. When she said yes, the attorney asked her why she had not asked the alleged victim if she also had experienced pain from the penetration and why the mother wasn’t concerned about that, clearly implying that the mother should have been more concerned about the physical condition of her daughter if she believed that the daughter had been subjected to penetration.
The defense attorney has more extensive questioning to do, and the trial was set to resume on the morning of January 29 at 9 AM.
