PARIS — An Oxford County Superior Court judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case of a Waterford man charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
Gregory Turner
The decision came on the opening day of the trial of Gregory Kenneth Turner, 47, of 1098 Waterford Road. He is charged with two counts of gross sexual assault, one of attempted gross sexual assault, one of unlawful sexual contact, and one of aggravated unlawful furnishing of cocaine in Oxford County. He is also charged with kidnapping, three counts of gross sexual assault, and unlawful furnishing of cocaine in Cumberland County.
Turner is accused of holding the girl against her will in December 2007 and sexually assaulting her in two locations in Waterford and one in Bridgton, which is in Cumberland County. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Turner's lawyer, Leonard Sharon, made the request for a mistrial while the jury was in recess. He said Turner's wife had provided him with printouts of Internet blogs and other Web sites authored by the girl. In his opening statement, Sharon said the content of the Web sites would cast doubt on the girl's credibility.
Sharon said Turner's wife would have had to authenticate the printouts while taking the stand as a witness for them to be admitted into evidence. He said he was told as late as Sunday night that she would be able to do so.
Sharon said that when Assistant District Attorney Richard Beauchesne raised questions about the Web sites during a break in Monday's testimony, he double-checked with Turner's wife and found that she would be unable to authenticate the printouts.
Sharon said the jury would potentially be biased against Turner and his representation if he was unable to introduce evidence that he had mentioned in his opening statement.
"I thought the prejudice outweighed his right to go forward," Sharon said.
Beauchesne opposed the request. He suggested that Justice Donald Marden could instruct the jury to disregard the point Sharon had made in his opening statement or prevent testimony on the Web sites from Turner's wife.
Marden granted the request after saying that evidence related to the girl's credibility was "highly substantive" and that there was no sign that the potential jury prejudice was due to fault in Sharon's representation.
Before the mistrial was declared, Monday's proceedings included testimony from the girl's father and the opening statements of Beauchesne and Sharon.
Beauchesne opened by saying that Turner had told different stories to friends and others about where he was on the evening of the incident, while Sharon questioned the motives of the girl and her family, and said Turner was presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
The mistrial decision did not dismiss the charges against Turner, and Beauchesne declined to comment while the case remained active.
The next month a trial may be scheduled in the Oxford County Superior Court is January.
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