More news

Sex offender back before jury again

Alleged victim is impaired, won’t testify By Dionne Waugh The Journal Gazette

Jurors began hearing testimony Tuesday during a trial for a man accused of sexually assaulting a woman with developmental disabilities who a judge said does not have to testify. Todd L. Anderson, 31, of the 4600 block of Weisser Park Avenue, is charged with attempted criminal deviate conduct, attempted rape, sexual battery and being a habitual offender. Anderson, a twice-convicted child molester, is accused of touching a 26-year-old woman sexually and trying to have sex with her as she waited for her aunt to pick her up Aug. 28, 2005.

During the first day of a scheduled two-day trial, Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards said the victim had the mind of a child in the body of an adult. “She does kindergarten-level math. Her reading and writing is like a first-grader. She functions as a 6- or 7-year-old child level,” Richards said. “She is, for all intents and purposes, a child.”

The woman, who has an IQ of 52, also suffers from cerebral palsy, which causes her speech to be slurred. A judge ruled that because of her mental state, the woman is a protected person and does not have to testify. The woman cannot understand something as abstract as an oath, Richards said. Richards said the evidence will show that Anderson, who’d known the victim for a long time, lured her into a backyard about 9 p.m. where he partly undressed her and tried to assault her.

“But for the fact that they were interrupted, he would’ve had sex with her,” Richards said.

Someone flipped on a backyard light, she said, which caused Anderson to run away. Defense attorney Mitch Hicks told the jury that Anderson, who has a ninth-grade education, knew the woman well enough to understand her gestures. Anderson told police he did not know she was legally disabled, Hicks said.

“He knew she had problems, but he didn’t know she could not give consent,” Hicks said

Anderson pleaded guilty in Allen Superior Court in November 2003 to child molesting for fondling an 8-year-old girl in December 1999. He was originally convicted in that case in May 2002 of child molesting and being a habitual offender, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. However, the Indiana Court of Appeals overturned the conviction because there were no other witnesses or medical evidence to corroborate the girl’s testimony.

In 1992, Anderson was convicted of criminal sexual conduct in White Pigeon, Mich., that involved a 6-year-old girl.

……..

Thankfully they got this guy who preys on children. His claim of "didn't know" might pan out to 9th grade jurors, but I hope that the jury consists of other persons as well. I will, however, note that Mitch Hicks (his attorney) clearly has run afoul, with a get-my-client-out-of-responsiblity-any-way-I-can attitude, really should be charged with aiding known felon. As for his client -- may his hell start now!

.......

Give That Man a Prize

If confessed murderer Daryl Keith Holton gets his way, on Tuesday he will become the first prisoner to die in Tennessee’s electric chair in 46 years. Holton, who confessed to murdering his three young sons and his ex-wife’s daughter within hours of shooting them to death with a semiautomatic assault rifle, is scheduled to be executed because he quit appealing his death sentence. He also chose the electric chair over the state’s preferred method of lethal injection.

+ When I use the phrase, "Give that man a prize", it is for, albeit late, suicide. I despise his crime, but applaud his way out -- though self-hanging in jail or stabbing himself would reallycheapen his death. I'd get him a guillotine, if I thought he'd use it.