"Ed's been touching me", emotional and graphic testimony in case of 62 year old man charged with continuous sexual abuse of former foster child who is now 11, but abuse allegedly started in 2012

I cannot take a photo in court but this is a photo of John Kufner from Facebook. This is how he looks now, with his grey hair pulled back in a pony tail and a grey suit instead of the jail orange jumpsuit, Kufner sat and with no emotion listened to Judge Timothy Cissna read the charge against him.

Kufner who is charged with recurring sexual conduct, PC 288.5 (a). The complaint alleges that there was "continuous sexual abuse" and that Kufner "engaged in three or more lewd or lascivious acts with Jane Doe, a child under 14 years". According to the complaint, he resided with and recurring access to the child.

A jury of 7 men and 5 women, with 3 alternates, all women evolved into a jury of 6 men and 6 women even before the trial started this morning. A juror was excused after he requested to meet with the Judge.

For privacy reasons and age of the minor children, they will be referred to Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2. The mother's name will be just initials and I will not mention the social worker's name for the same reasons.

After preliminary jury instructions, Deputy District Attorney Zach Curtis made his brief opening statement. Then Public Defender Mr. Casey Russo who is representing Kufner made a lengthier opening statement and Jane Doe # 1 testified. Her emotional and detailed testimony was so painful for me to watch, that at times, I put my pen down in court. I waited all day to write these posts.

The rest of this post will be DDA Curtis' opening. I will do two other posts, the defense opening, and Jane Doe's testimony from Tuesday.

"I am going to present to you my view of what the evidence will show. These are my words. I will give you a road map of the trial."

"In February 2014, Jane Doe spoke to her mom and said, "Ed's been touching me. " Jane Doe was born in October 2003. " When her dad died, "her mom became a wreck", Mr. Kufner baby sat for both Jane Doe and her younger sister and "at one point became her foster father."

"He touched her in an inappropriate manner, he touched her private parts, her vagina."

"In a camping trip, she was naked from the bottom, he was also naked, and he rubbed himself against her with an erection."

"Jane Doe's mom got her act together, she got custody back. Jane Doe spoke to law enforcement and investigation began. Law enforcement made a pretext call. Jane Doe's mom called Kufner. You will hear Mr. Kufner's explainations. You will hear that phone call. You will hear law enforcement interview. Mr. Kufner said, No regarding camping incident. That is the most firm no you will hear. After an hour, he admits, he woke up with an erection next to Jane Doe. This is inconsistent with his previous statement. His voice is emotional. He plays it off as innocouous."