I guess you all are just a bunch of nosy busy bodies, hm?  This is long and a bit graphic, but you said you wanted to hear it.

For the record, there is absolutely no identifying information in this post, everything that can be changed to protect identity and integrity has been changed.  The facts relating to this trial are a matter of public record, and anyone can view them, but that would be boring and laborious and my story is a lot more fun.  Pretend it’s a two-minute mystery, you used to love those!

The defendant was a 24 year old Hispanic guy, Jose.  The charges were sexual assault on a child in a position of trust, child enticement, and simple sexual assault.  The penalty was 25 to life.  The victim was a 13 year old girl, Maria.  Jose is Maria’s cousin and they lived in the same house in Commerce City with Maria’s mom, dad, little sister (3) and little brother (11).  Jose and Maria’s dad bought the house together in 2004, because Maria’s dad couldn’t qualify for a loan on his own.  Jose has become an American citizen, is taking English classes, has had the same job for 6 years, doesn’t call in sick and is never late.  He goes to church, and sends about 25% of his pay to his family in Mexico.  Maria looks and acts like a hoochie, is suspected of being in a gang, gets poor grades and skips school frequently.

Maria said that on New Year’s Eve 2005 she went to a party at her aunt’s house.  She said she first got a ride with her mom to her mom’s work (downtown Denver) and was picked up there by Jose at 6pm and dropped off at the party in Southeast Aurora at around 6:20.  She was supposed to spend the night, but a short time after midnight decided she didn’t want to stay and called her mom to pick her up.  Her mom was in bed an her dad was sick, so no one wanted to go get her.  Her mom told her to call her cousin Jose for a ride, which she did.  He was celebrating at his girlfriend’s house and said he would give her a ride but that it would be a while before he came. 

She said that he arrived to pick her up at around 1:15am.  She said that they got on the highway to go home, but that he kept going and took her to the mountains.  She said they ended up at Genesee Park.  She said he told her to get out of the car and come around to his side, and he got out as well.  She said when she got around to that side, he had his penis out and was "jacking off".  He told her to touch his penis and she said she didn’t want to.  She said at this point he pulled her pants down, but only a little bit, to the point indicated in this picture:

He then pulled his own pants down, to about the same level and lifted her by the hips and placed her on the hood of his car like this:

She said he then spread her legs and put his penis to the opening of her vagina, and rubbed it there,  but did not go inside her.  She said she told him to stop 2 or 3 times.  She said he then ejaculated into his own hands and told her to touch it (the ejaculate), which she did.  She said almost all of it went all over her hands.  She said about 5-7 minutes later he went around to the back of the car and retrieved a big Gatorade bottle of water, and dumped it on her hands to wash off the semen.  She said the assault took about an hour.  She said there were no cars in any of the parking lots at Genesee Park and no one ever drove by.  When asked why she didn’t scream or run away, she said it was because the entire park was deserted.  They then left Genesee Park and drove home to their house in Commerce City.  She said the only conversation was that he asked her if she ever might want to do it again and she said no.  She said  they got home around 2am, and her mother was up with her little sister who was crying.   

She didn’t report it to anyone at first, and instead all through January became severely depressed and started spending every night in her room, afraid to be around Jose.  She stopped having dinner with the family and cried all the time.

Over a month later, on February 2nd she decided to tell someone.  Her mom was dropping her off at school and as she exited the car she told her mom " Jose did something to me but I will tell you about it later."   Her mom said "ok".  She shut the door and walked into school.  She said at some point in the day she told her friend Yvette what had happened on New Year’s Eve and then her and Yvette went and told the principal.

The ball started rolling at this point and Social Services and the police were called.  Maria told her story to a counselor,  the social worker, and the police.  The school called Maria’s mom.  Social Services called Jose and told him he could not return to his house until an investigation was completed.  When asked why she choose now to come forward, she said she didn’t tell at first because she was afraid they would lose their house and she was afraid
he would start sexually abusing her little sister, who was 3 years old.

That night Maria told her mother what Jose had done.  Her mother didn’t believe her and there was a shouting match.

Maria returned to her school with her mother and recanted.  Her mother did most of the talking and said that Maria had made the story up and that it was "her latest ploy to get someone in trouble with her gang."  Apparently it is a common gang initiation to make false sexual assault charges on an adult, and depending on how much trouble they get into, it furthers your status into the gang.  Scary shit, huh?

Maria’s mother wanted to cancel the investigation.  The school officials took Maria aside and asked her "did this really happen or not?"  Maria said that it did, so the investigation continued without Maria’s mothers blessing.   Jose was charged and arrested.

He said:
He went to work on New Year’s Eve.  His hours are 6am – 6:30pm.  His time card verifies he was at work until 6:30.  He stopped at an ATM near his work in Thornton at 6:35.  He picked up his girlfriend on his way home from work.  When they got to his house,   Maria’s dad and Maria’s two siblings were there.  He took a shower and got dressed, and he and his girlfriend went out to dinner. 

They then went to his girlfriend’s house for New Year’s Eve (she lived with her mom and dad), arriving there around 9pm.  He said he got a call around midnight from Maria asking him to pick her up at her aunt’s house and take her home.  He said he picked her up at about 1:15 and they drove straight home.  His girlfriend called him at 2am to say goodnight and they talked for about 20 minutes. She said she could hear Maria’s little sister crying in the background.  Two days later, on January 3, he left to visit his family in Mexico and did not return until January 29.

He was called on February 2nd by Social Services and told not to return home because of the investigation.  He went to his girlfriend’s house where he stayed until he was arrested in July, and has been there since getting out on bail.  On February 5, Maria’s dad told Jose that since he couldn’t live there anymore,  he had to sign over his half of the house to Maria’s dad, which he did, receiving no money in the exchange.

So what, if any….are the problems with this story?

The problems, there are many:

~Jose couldn’t have picked up Maria at her moms work at 6:20pm if he didn’t get off work until 6:30.
~And
if he did, he likely wouldn’t have left his work in Thornton, picked up
his cousin from downtown Denver at 6:20, drove back to Thornton to an
ATM, then dropped her off in Southeast Aurora.
~If you pull your pants (jeans) down to mid thigh level, sit down, then try to spread your legs, it is impossible.  Even more impossible is someone putting their penis at the opening to your vagina in this position. 
~If you were raped and the attacker put his semen in your hands, would you hold it there for 5-7 minutes?
~More
timeline problems.  If Jose picked up Maria in Southeast Aurora at
1:15am, drove to Genesee Park (33 miles away) and assaulted her for
about an hour, then drove back to Commerce City, it most certainly
would not be 2am when they arrived home.
~Genesee Park is a very
busy place on New Year’s Eve.  You can see the entire city of Denver
from there, and lots of folks go there to watch people do fireworks at
midnight, and then hang out for a while. Private investigators for the
defense took pictures at 1:30am this past New Years of various parking
lots around and there were approximately 30 cars parked there.
~Genesee
is continually patrolled by the parks service and the ranger who
testified said he drives through the parking lot in question
approximately every 20 minutes.  He never saw Jose’s car or anyone
sitting on the hood being assaulted.
~Maria said she was so
distraught and depressed about the assault and so afraid of Jose
afterwards, that she rarely left her room from January 1 until he moved
out on February 2nd.  But he was in Mexico from January 3 to the 29th
so there would be absolutely no reason for her to hole up like that.
~The
whole "gang" thing.  It makes me wonder how many people are in prison
for crimes reported that never happened.  The gang expert who testified
said the false reporting of sexual assault for gang status is becoming
"chronic".
~One of the biggest "huh?!" things in the whole trial is that Maria’s mother never testified, and never came to court.  So much had to do with her, and yet she was painfully absent.  She could have cleared up a bit of reasonable doubt, perhaps.

As I said yesterday, we had a lone juror holding out for guilty for 5
hours.  I have never been so mad, sad, and frustrated at someone in my
entire life.   As jurors, (read this carefully) – our only instruction and  obligation is to determine if the prosecution has proven the 3 charges without a reasonable doubt.    

The story.  The wait.  The pants.   The times.  The gang.  The mom. 

He did not understand that neon flashing inconsistencies mean reasonable doubt.  He had a feeling that the guy did it.  He seriously said that.  From the first 5 minutes of deliberation he said "You will never ever ever change my mind to NOT guilty.  Ever."   We were freaking out.

After 2 hours the foreman sent a note to the judge asking "what if we can’t agree"?  The judge sent a note back saying "Then you aren’t done deliberating."

I couldn’t smoke during deliberations, and I didn’t get to smoke at lunch.  From the time we arrived at 8am, we had to go everywhere as a 12 person group.   There is even a bathroom connected to the deliberation room.  Two of us asked the bailiff if we could go smoke, and he said only if everyone goes.  It was 17 degrees and snowing outside, so we got a resounding "no" to that one.   Finally our holdout saw the light, or at least agreed to disagree.

I was so excited for the defendant and couldn’t wait to see his face when he heard.  The foreman couldn’t sign the verdicts fast enough and several of us were whispering  "hurry up!"  "Sign it sign it sign it!"

When the judge read the verdict, the defendant started crying and a
lot of jurors were crying too.  We were so emotional about this man,
who we were absolutely, positively sure had done none of this.  During
his own testimony he cried, sobbed actually, and a lot of us cried with
him then too.  All afternoon I couldn’t help but have a very
heavy heart for this man who I knew was sitting somewhere with a knot
in his stomach,  wondering if he would be going to prison that day.
And then after we informed the bailiff that we had a verdict, it took a
long time, about 20 minutes, for them to call us into the courtroom, I
later found out because it took a long time to assemble all the police
necessary to transport him away in handcuffs, should our verdict gone
the other way.  I was so emotional during those 20 minutes that I
nearly threw up.  I know he must have felt the same way, and truthfully
he had to feel much much worse.

I have tears running down my face now, even.  I have never felt such
intense emotions for people I don’t know and will never see again.

After the courtroom was cleared, the judge came into the
deliberation room and thanked us sincerely, and let us ask questions.
She also said that our county offers up counseling at the courthouse
for jurors in such trials for a few days after the trial ends, and I
can understand why.  I felt like my heart and my stomach had been
ripped out, twirled around, stomped on, knotted up and put back in
place.

And that’s about it.  If you’ve read this far, I’m dying to know what you think.