LIHUE — The trial against a former Kauai resident accused of sexually assaulting a step-daughter in the mid-1990s got started with testimony from the victim on Tuesday in 5th Circuit Court. Steven Westerman, 37, was living in Lynnwood, Wash., when
LIHUE — The trial against a former Kauai resident accused of sexually assaulting a step-daughter in the mid-1990s got started with testimony from the victim on Tuesday in 5th Circuit Court.
Steven Westerman, 37, was living in Lynnwood, Wash., when a Hawaii 5th Circuit grand jury indicted him on Oct. 25, 2012, charging six counts of first-degree sexual assault on a juvenile under the age of 14.
The charges allege that from June 15, 1995, through May 31, 1997, Westerman knowingly engaged in multiple acts of sexual penetration with the victim.
Westerman was arrested on Nov. 21, 2012. After his appearance for arraignment, he was released on $100,000 bail.
Chief Judge Randal Valenciano is presiding over the trial.
The victim, 24 now, recalled her Kekaha childhood as happy except for the nightmare at home. Her mother and father divorced and she couldn’t speak of what she called the molesting at the hands of her new stepfather, Westerman, who had another baby girl born in 1995 when she was just 6.
The incidents stopped when she was 7 years old. Westerman left Kauai for the Mainland to join the Army in 1997.
County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Lisa Arin asked the victim if she understood what was happening to her at the time and if she even knew any words for the acts that she was told to perform.
“I just thought this was the way that you grow up,” she said.
She blamed her mother for not protecting her. She became angry often in her high school years and finally revealed what happened to her mother in an argument about wanting to live with her biological father when she was 16.
It was then that her mother, father and others brought her to treatment when social workers said it was a criminal complaint to be reported. The period of limitation did not expire during the time period that the victim was under 18 years of age pursuant to Hawaii Revised Statutes.
As part of her interviews with the Children’s Justice Center and the police investigation, the victim had to return to the residence where the alleged crimes occurred. She said it was a wonderful feeling at first recalling the memories of playing with friends in the front yard.
“Then I saw the house and I just wanted to burn it down,” she said.
Defense attorney Craig De Costa said in his opening statements that this case was about a daughter who was upset with her mother because she couldn’t get her way and live with her biological father. The complainant wanted to make her mother believe it was because she didn’t feel safe and she said Westerman molested her because he had been gone for years and didn’t ever expect to see him again.
The case lacks evidence, DNA and there was no fair and full investigation, De Costa said.
He added it was possible the multiple interviews the complainant went through over two years as a teenager influenced her childhood memories of events to the point she believed things that might not be true or to perpetuate the story she told out of anger to her mother.
The prosecution called Diane Gerard, Ph.D., as its afternoon witness. The court ruled her an expert in the area of child and family psychology, and with the general dynamics of child sex assault.
Gerard testified it is possible for children ages 5 and under to have an influenced memory when repeatedly told things that were not true or different. It rarely occurs beyond age 5 and by the time children are 10 years old they are like adults when it comes to resisting an influenced memory.
Gerard also testified that about two-thirds of child sex-assault victims usually do not tell anyone what is happening until they are adults. This is often what allows molestations to go on repeatedly, she said.
The prosecution will call more witnesses today and Thursday. The case may turn to the defense on Friday.
