‘I didn’t know he was that big of a monster.’ Mother of victim testifies in lewd conduct with child case
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POCATELLO — The prosecution rested on Wednesday in the case against a Pocatello man who has been accused of sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl.
Dean Stewart Anderson, 39, faces two counts of lewd conduct with a minor.
RELATED | Trial begins for Pocatello man charged with sexually abusing 9-year-old girl
Prosecuting Attorney Erin Tognetti called seven witnesses to the stand, three of them recognized as experts in their field by the court.
The mother
After the victim finished testifying in the morning, the prosecution called her mother to the stand to testify and speak on the experiences she and her family had while she and Anderson were in a relationship.
“He was violent towards my children, but I never knew he would cross that line. I didn’t know he was that big of a monster,” the mother said.
She said that on one occasion, Anderson even threatened to “chop her into pieces” and spread her all around Pocatello. The day before, the victim said they had faced physical abuse in the home, separate from her allegations of sexual abuse.
In cross-examination, Anderson’s attorney, Justin Oleson, said Health and Welfare had instituted a safety plan for the mother’s two sons, younger than the victim, over issues that had nothing to do with Anderson.
During questioning, the mother also acknowledged that the victim had told her things that weren’t true “from time to time.”
“Do kids always tell the truth?” she asked in response.
On Tuesday in court, the girl had described multiple instances where Anderson had allegedly shown her pornographic videos and forced her to perform sex acts on him.
Although the mother largely corroborated the testimony of her daughter, she also acknowledged that there were some details she had misremembered.
The experts
But the next witness brought to the stand, a counselor and the program director at Bright Tomorrows Child Advocacy Center, said that misremembering certain details is not uncommon for a child, especially one that’s experienced trauma.
The counselor said that recalling sensory details is a sign that a child is accessing a memory, which the victim was doing during their forensic interview. She also said she doesn’t ask children for dates during interviews because they’re not likely to remember them.
Oleson questioned her on what sensory details the victim had described, and whether she was familiar with studies that say that older children are more likely to level false allegations. The counselor said that she hadn’t seen studies that said that and that children falsely accusing is rare.
The detective
The prosecution also called the Pocatello Police Department Detective to the stand to testify about assisting the Child Protection Services with conducting a welfare check. This was when the victim told the detective her allegations. The detective took a swab test on the victim.
Later that evening, the detective told Anderson of the allegation. Oleson asked the detective if Anderson seemed upset.
“He didn’t seem terribly upset about it,” the detective said. “He didn’t emote one way or another.”
The prosecution also called two witnesses to the stand who served the search warrant on Anderson’s vehicle, and found a stain on the seat.
The last two witnesses called were two forensic scientists who examined the samples sent to the Idaho State Police lab in Meridian. The first forensic scientists found no traces of semen or saliva in the samples, but the second forensic scientist in the DNA case work unit found one sample containing DNA from both the victim and Anderson.
This sample was a four-person profile, the victim and Anderson being two of them. The other samples sent to the lab were found to be inconclusive, meaning that there wasn’t enough DNA on them, or there was too much degradation.
On Thursday, the defense takes the stand to make a case to the jury for Anderson. It’s unclear whether he will take the stand and testify.