By Brandon Blanco and Veronica Miller
WOODLAND, CA – The alleged victim of 57 counts of child molestation took the witness stand Thursday here in Yolo County Superior Court.
The victim is the niece of the accused (who won’t be identified because it may violate the privacy of the victim) faces 30 counts of lewd conduct with a minor under 14 by force and 27 counts of lewd conduct with a minor under 14.
The witness, the niece of the defendant, appeared with a support person.
The victim said, “When I was five, I lived at my aunt’s house” with her “sister, my uncle, my aunt.” Both her parents were in prison for drugs at the time, she added.
Regarding the sexual assault, she was allegedly sexually assaulted in the bathroom by the accused when she was six. According to the witness, she was sexually assaulted by the accused “more than 50 times.”
The victim also said that the accused not only molested the victim in the bathroom or his bedroom, but also in the tree house at the backyard of the home, while her younger sister witnessed it. Even while on camping trips, the accused would molest the victim inside the tent.
The victim said “when I was 11 or 12 (2005) and I ran away to soccer practice, from there I went to my friend’s house and later I stayed at my cousin’s house.” The accused, she added, pleaded with the victim to return, but she was scared.
After 13 years of staying silent, in 2018, the victim told her sister about what happened and filed a police report with the West Sacramento Police Dept. in April 2019. She testified she reported it because she was fearful her niece (who was seven at the time) would suffer the same fate. 
Deputy Public Defender James Bradford cross-examined the victim, asking if the victim benefits from testifying against the accused, to which the victim responded “no.”
The next witness called to the stand was Detective Andrea Aing, with the West Sacramento Police Department. She was given the case and had the task of contacting the accused to interview him.
After some time trying to get in contact with him through phone calls and letters, the accused did show up to the West Sacramento Police Department to discuss the accusations against him.
A video of the police interrogation was shown to the jury. This video shows the accused explaining the crimes and the actions that he had participated in with the victim.
In the beginning of the video the accused can be seen talking about how “the Lord” had brought him to the police to make his sins “right.” He also wanted the officer to know the victim had reported things that he had never done. He repeatedly stated the victim was adding things because she was angry and wanted him to go away for a long time.
He did admit, on the video, events had happened during the summer while the victim was somewhere around 11 or 12.
The accused recalled one night the victim had asked him to come in and scratch her back while he was on his way to bed. While he was scratching her back he said that he realized how much of a woman she was becoming and his manly instinct started to “kick in.”
He stated that this happened only a few times throughout the summer and only lasted a short amount of time each time because he was afraid that his wife would come in and find them. He described these events being similar to two lovers.
Throughout the interview the accused would stop Detective Aing to ask him if the question she was asking was because they had been told that by the victim.
The accused also said he did not want to talk much about what had happened in the incidents with the victim because the interviewer was a woman. Eventually Detective Aing had to bring in a male officer.
One question in particular that Detective Aing wanted to be answered was why the victim would be reporting that it had been happening for years, and he was stating it had happened only a few times.
The accused’s answer to this is that the victim is being told by family and friends to make up these scenarios to try and get him sentenced to 100 years in jail.
The trial will reconvene May 23.
