PARIS — James V. Cole testified Monday that he never touched a girl he is accused of sexually assaulting from 2003 to 2008.
The 32-year-old Rumford man took the stand in Oxford County Superior Court on the fifth day of his trial on 11 charges of gross sexual assault.
The alleged victim was 10 when she said the first incident took place, according to court records.
Near the beginning of his testimony, Cole was asked by defense attorney Leonard Sharon if he had ever touched or sexually assaulted the girl. Cole said he hadn’t.
Sharon asked Cole about the evidence presented last week, including a blanket that had semen the closely matched Cole’s DNA.
The girl testified that Cole had assaulted her on the blanket in a storage locker in Mexico on several occasions.
According to Cole, the blanket was one on which he had slept with his ex-wife before it was moved to the storage unit. He said that after a foreclosure forced him out of his home, he and his ex-wife lived in a camper in his parents’ yard. He said the blanket was necessary to cover an uncomfortable fold-out bed in the camper.
Last week, Cole’s ex-wife denied she and her husband had ever slept on the blanket. She said she had laundered the blanket and packed it to bring to the storage locker at the time of the foreclosure.
Assistant District Attorney Richard Beauchesne said this meant the blanket would have been free of DNA when it went into the storage locker.
Cole said he didn’t believe she had laundered the clothes, because the electric company had turned off power to the house a week before the foreclosure.
Cole said the floor was too cluttered with boxes and furniture to lay a mattress on the floor, as the girl alleged he had.
The girl said the storage locker had been used in the last few sexual assaults in 2007 and 2008. She said after the last one, and at the urging of a family member she didn’t wash her clothes.
Her clothes, including the underwear she was still wearing when she reported the crime, were analyzed by the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory, who found sperm cells on the underwear.
Because of the small sample size, crime lab DNA analyst Theresa Calicchio said she couldn’t get a complete profile of the DNA found, but she said she couldn’t rule out Cole as a potential donor of the sperm cells. She said 1 in 28 people could match the partial DNA profile.
Sharon said the sperm cells could have come from the girl’s ex-boyfriend.
The girl and the ex-boyfriend denied that their relationship was sexual in early 2008.
On Monday, Sharon brought two witnesses who refuted that. Jodi Dunn of Casco said the girl had confided to her in 2007 that she was having sex with her boyfriend. Cole’s cousin Alyssa Cole also said the girl had confided this.
When Beauchesne cross-examined Alyssa Cole, he asked about a statement she had made in 2008, shortly after James Cole was charged with sexual assault. At the time, she told police she had seen Cole take the alleged victim into a room and close both doors. She had said he then yelled at someone who tried to look into the room.
On Monday, Alyssa Cole said she couldn’t recall if both doors had been closed at the time.
James Cole said he didn’t recall the incident.
The prosecution and defense rested their cases Monday and will give closing arguments Tuesday. Justice Robert Clifford will instruct jurors before releasing them for deliberations.
Supporting Sponsor for the Advertiser Democrat
Keeping communities informed by supporting local news. norwaysavings.bank
Comments are no longer available on this story