CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Alleged victim takes stand in Elmore child sex trial

Montgomery Advertiser - 3/13/2019

March 13-- Mar. 13--WETUMPKA -- The alleged victim in an Elmore County child-sex trial took the stand Wednesday morning.

The now-teenage girl testified for about two hours, often giving graphic details of the alleged abuse.

James Randall "Randy" Acker, 56, of the 800 block of Lewis Road, Elmore, faces charges of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12, sexual abuse and sodomy court records show. His trial began Tuesday morning with Circuit Judge Bill Lewis presiding. The alleged victim and Acker know one another.

Assistant District Attorney Jillian Jordan Evans stood by the witness stand as she asked questions of the girl on direct examination. Acker was seated about 10 feet away at the defense table. He stared ahead during most of the girl's testimony, wiping away tears on several occasions.

Acker allegedly showed her child pornography on cell phones and "did some inappropriate stuff..." to her, the alleged victim told the jury. She described incidents of improper touching and oral sex. The prosecution and defense teams often approached the bench during the testimony. The girl would let out loud breaths and heavy sighs and rub her hands over her eyes during the breaks. She would also lay her head down on the witness stand and cover her head with her arms.

During cross examination Sherri Mazur, Acker's attorney, asked the alleged victim about inconsistencies in her testimony and comments she made in the past to investigating officers and people who made forensic interviews with her as part of the investigation.

"You didn't tell the truth before?" Mazur asked.

"I was telling the truth, but not the whole truth," the girl answered. She went on to say that she didn't tell the whole truth because she didn't want to get Acker "... in trouble."

On redirect, Evans asked is she was telling the truth today.

"Yes ma'am," the girl answered.

Mazur is keying on the alleged victim's statements. In her opening statement to the jury on Tuesday Mazur laid the argument that the current case has its base in the actions of the alleged victim's mother. Acker and the mother were involved in court action when the sexual abuse allegations came to light.

The girl's mother took the stand before her daughter Tuesday and resumed her testimony Wednesday morning, also before the alleged victim testified. When Mazur asked the mother if the girl ever lied, the mother answered "Yes."

On redirect, Evans asked the mother to explain what she meant.

"She's a child, she lies like children lie," the mother said. "When something's broken in the house and you asked a child if they did it they will say no. If I asked her if she had a good day and she didn't but didn't want to talk about it she would say yes."

The trial recessed for lunch about 11:30 a.m. and will resume at 1 p.m. The state is expected to call one more witness before resting. Mazur told Lewis after the jury left the courtroom for lunch that she expected to call two witnesses in the defense portion of the trial.

Acker is a registered sex offender. He had pleaded guilty in 2000 to a charge of sexual misconduct in an unrelated case involving a young girl, Evans told the jury Tuesday in her opening statement. The original charge in the case was rape, courthouse records show. Outside of the courtroom Capt. Chris Ogden of the Elmore County Sheriff's Office confirmed that Acker is registered as a sex offender with the office. The current case is being investigated by the sheriff's office and Ogden handled the investigation.

Mazur acknowledged the past conviction in her opening statement to the jury on Tuesday.

"His attorney told him you plea to a misdemeanor and you don't go to jail," she said, then. "It is in your best interests to plea. All the evidence in this case, from every person involved, has its roots in the 1999 investigation. He was involved in something like this before, so he has to be guilty.

"In our system we don't get to say 'Well, you did it before, you did it now."

She told the jury Tuesday that there is no direct evidence against Acker in the case.

___

(c)2019 the Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, Ala.)

Visit the Montgomery Advertiser (Montgomery, Ala.) at www.montgomeryadvertiser.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.