PARIS — The defense attorney in a sexual assault trial Wednesday questioned the investigative methods of Rumford police officers and a DNA analyst at the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory.

Capt. Daniel Garbarini of the Rumford Police Department and former Rumford police Lt. Mark Cayer took the stand Wednesday afternoon in Oxford County Superior Court to testify about their roles in the investigation of James V. Cole, 32, of Rumford.

Cole is being tried on 11 charges of gross sexual assault against a girl from 2003 and 2008, according to police.

The alleged victim, now an adult, testified earlier this week, that Cole assaulted her 40 to 50 times during those years, but she only entered statements on the incidents she remembered best.

Garbarini told the jury that he received a call in January 2008 from Dirigo High School that a student there had told a counselor she had been sexually assaulted over several years.

He said he spoke to the girl after she had a medical examination. During the conversation, according to a transcript read aloud by Cole’s attorney, Leonard Sharon, Garbarini told the girl he would gather evidence that would corroborate her claims against Cole.

On Wednesday, Garbarini said he was trying to comfort the girl, but Sharon called it the beginning of an investigation that ignored any evidence that wouldn’t convict Cole.

During his cross-examination of Garbarini, Sharon pointed out that the officer hadn’t collected several pieces of clothing worn by the girl and by Cole on Jan. 28, 2008, the day of the alleged most recent sexual assault.

The girl said that assault happened in a self storage locker in Mexico.

Police got a subpoena and searched the locker, confiscating a mattress, a blanket and other clothing. The blanket, mattress, underwear worn by the girl and other clothing were submitted to the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory, along with DNA samples from the girl and Cole, according to testimony.

Sharon chastised Garbarini for not taking a DNA sample from the girl’s boyfriend she was dating at the time. Someone familiar with both parties told Garbarini that the girl had been in a sexual relationship with him, according to testimony.

Garbarini said he interviewed the ex-boyfriend, who denied there was a sexual relationship. The girl denied it as well, and Garbarini said he believed them and didn’t pursue the issue further.

At the crime lab, forensic DNA analyst Theresa Calicchio said she studied DNA samples from the girl’s underwear and the blanket police confiscated from the storage locker.

On the underwear, there was a sign of sperm but the DNA sample had degraded or the sample was so small that Calicchio couldn’t get a full reading of the DNA. Mixture of a male’s DNA with the girl’s DNA matched Cole’s in a few locations in the DNA strand, but other locations weren’t available, she said.

As a result, there was a partial match for Cole, but Calicchio said 1 in 28 people would also match the fraction of a profile.

A DNA sample from the blanket was more conclusive. Sperm found there showed a more complete picture, and matched closely enough to Cole’s so that only 1 in 1.27 million people could possibly match the DNA there, she said.

However, the blanket was in Cole’s storage locker, where, according to Sharon, he had moved his possessions after his home was foreclosed upon. Sharon said the blanket may have been on Cole’s bed before he lost his home. Analysis doesn’t reveal the age of DNA samples, he said.

“You can’t tell me when those DNA samples became deposited on the blanket,” Sharon told Calicchio. “You can’t tell me when they deposited on the blanket.”

Sharon suggested the other DNA sample on the underwear may have come from the girl’s ex-boyfriend. He also suggested that the crime lab’s analysis of a mixture of two DNA samples, as had been on the underwear and the blanket, increased the chance of error.

Sharon pointed out a case where another analyst at the crime lab had accidentally contaminated a DNA sample.

Calicchio said she had a perfect record and had not contaminated a sample in her 14 years with the crime lab.

All the DNA located corresponded to the samples from Cole and the girl, Calicchio said. There was no evidence of other samples.

The prosecution’s case, led by Assistant District Attorney Richard Beauchesne, will continue Thursday morning.

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