The fifth day of the trial of Elfido Marroquin-Aldana on a Class A charge of gross sexual assault of a 5-year-old Damariscotta girl is underway at press time Aug. 22.
The charges stem from alleged incidents in June 2011 when Marroquin-Aldana and his wife were living with the alleged victim’s family. His wife was a housekeeper and nanny for the family.
Marroquin-Aldana, 31, recently of Chicago, is a citizen of Guatemala.
Assistant Attorney General Deborah Cashman is the prosecutor for the state, which rested its case the afternoon of Aug. 21.
The state has built its case on physical evidence, including the presence of the defendant’s DNA in the underwear the alleged victim was wearing at the time of the alleged assault, as well as the testimony of the girl, now 6, her parents and a series of law enforcement officers and Maine State Crime Laboratory personnel.
Defense attorney Sherry Tash has yet to present any witnesses. In her opening statement and cross-examinations, however, she has questioned a number of facets of the state’s case.
Tash has sought to undermine the credibility of witnesses, especially the alleged victim, who she said is “suggestible,” or susceptible to repeating what an adult, such as her mother, might have made regarding the alleged abuse.
The girl described the assault bluntly and persistently, despite Tash’s efforts to get her to admit that she only said she was assaulted because someone told her to.
Tash has also argued that the alleged victim’s mother might have fabricated the allegations for personal benefit, questioned why the family did not report the assault for more than a month, and questioned how the defendant’s DNA came to be in the girl’s underwear.
Tash has indicated that she plans to call the defendant’s wife and an expert witness to testify about the suggestibility of children.
The defense has already had some success. After the state rested its case, Tash moved to dismiss the gross sexual assault charge and a separate unlawful sexual contact charge.
Justice Jeffrey Hjelm dismissed the unlawful sexual contact charge. The term unlawful sexual contact and the wording of the indictment refer to a specific type of abuse, and “there is no evidence,” Hjelm said, of that abuse.
Tash cited the alleged victim’s inability to identify the defendant in the courtroom in her motion to dismiss the gross sexual assault charge.
Hjelm denied that motion. He said the physical evidence and the testimony of the alleged victim and her parents could still allow the jury to conclude “that the defendant was in this courtroom who committed the crime of gross sexual assault.”
The parents have testified that Marroquin-Aldana has dramatically changed his appearance since the time of the alleged assault.
A grand jury indicted Marroquin-Aldana in November 2011. He remains in custody at Two Bridges Regional Jail, where he has been since his August 2011 arrest, when his bail was set at $100,000 cash.
He has been wearing a suit, not a jail jumpsuit, to court. He speaks Spanish and has spent his time in court listening attentively to a trio of interpreters. He has been largely impassive and silent throughout the proceedings, with one exception.
The afternoon of Aug. 20, after the jury filed out of the courtroom, Justice Jeffrey Hjelm asked the defendant if he was able to understand the proceedings.
“Yes, I understand,” Marroquin-Aldana said. “But I am not the kind of person they say I am.”
