PARIS – Kurt W. Sturtevant, 41, of Mechanic Falls sat silently Monday in Oxford County Superior Court while he was tried on charges that he sexually abused a young girl.

Sturtevant was indicted last June on two counts of Class A gross sexual assault and three counts of Class C unlawful sexual conduct. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and has been free on personal recognizance bail.

Judge Roland A. Cole dismissed one gross sexual assault charge at the request of defense attorney John Jenness Jr. of Paris. Jenness argued, due to the uncertainty of the victim’s memory of one incident, the prosecution had failed to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt.

Cole rejected a motion for complete acquittal under the same circumstances.

The alleged incidents took place in 1998, 2003 and 2005, when the girl was under the age of 14, according to records.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph O’Connor, representing the state, argued in his opening statement that the number of charges was arbitrary, and the jury should assume that more incidents had taken place over the years. Both he and Jenness noted the lack of scientific evidence in the case.

“You have to evaluate the credibility of the witnesses,” O’Connor said.

Jenness stressed the presumption of Sturtevant’s innocence.

“If it is not beyond a reasonable doubt,” he told the jury, “you are obligated to acquit him.”

The prosecution’s witnesses, none of whom are being identified by name in order to protect the victim, detailed the offenses Sturtevant allegedly committed against the girl. Two accused Sturtevant of patting or slapping the girl on the buttocks.

“I told him that if he kept doing that I was going to beat him,” one witness recalled.

Witnesses also accused Sturtevant of kissing the girl on the lips and calling her “hot.”

Much of the testimony centered around a phone call Sturtevant made to the girl in early 2006. When the girl refused to help him set up a DVD player in person, Sturtevant allegedly said, “I haven’t done anything inappropriate to you for a long time.”

The conversation, broadcast on speakerphone when she first got the call, prompted the girl’s grandmother to forbid any contact between Sturtevant and the girl. The first complaints against Sturtevant were made in April 2006.

Jenness argued in cross-examination that the Department of Human Services discovered no signs that the girl had been abused. He also posed several questions about the timeline of events given by the witnesses.

The state’s last witness was the girl, now 14, who tearfully claimed that Sturtevant had performed oral sex on her and touched her genitals. She said Sturtevant threatened to kill her younger brother if she told anyone about the first incident, and the consequent fear of Sturtevant prompted her to keep silent or lie about events.

She said there have been other incidents, and the abuse has been constant.

In cross-examination, Jenness argued there was a disparity between the girl’s testimony before the grand jury and that in court Monday. He also questioned the girl’s reluctance to seek help and the delay in bringing the complaints against Sturtevant.

The state rested its case Monday, and the defense produced its first witness. She said the girl had never complained of sexual abuse to her, and that the girl’s grandmother told her they “had to figure out a way to get Kurt out of [the girl’s] life.”

After the testimony and cross-examination of the witness, Judge Cole called a recess for the rest of the day. Sturtevant is expected to take the stand today, according to his attorney.

The trial is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. at Oxford County Superior Court.