Is the defense going after a 9 year old, now 11, who is the alleged victim of sexual abuse by a 62 year old man reasonable doubt?

Mr. Casey Russo, who represents Kufner started his closing on Wednesday, July 22 and it was for half an hour and continued the bulk of it for over an hour on Thursday, July 23.

On Wednesday, the gist of Mr. Russo's closing was that the investigation by the DA's office and law enforcement  was " seriously incomplete." He raised the question by asking why it took 6 months to arrest Kufner and that given Jane Doe's "troubled past", she was "acting out."  A lot of his closing was points raised in his opening. 

Three-fourths of Mr. Russo's closing was about Jane Doe. She was a very credible witness and by his focus on Jane Doe, the defense showed their hand. 

"What is the People's case? I already talked to you about Jane Doe #1 yesterday. It is important to go through what we learned about Jane Doe."

 "We learned that: Jane Doe's mother is a drug addict and mentally ill; we learned that she left Jane Doe with her father at a young age, we learned that she moved into a trailer park at age 7, then her father died". 

Mr. Russo brought up the motels and Jane Doe's mother having the girls living with other men. This was disputed by Jane Doe's and her mother's testimony and there was no independent evidence other than Kufner's allegations about these concerns in any other testimony.

Mr. Russo brought up the bedwetting and said that this "problem had been addressed by Kufner and and not the mother." Again, the pediatrician's testimony says otherwise, that both Kufner and mom brought her to the doctor. 

Mr. Russo said the "mother abandons them again" and then the girls came to live with Kufner. The girls were living with their dad, then with their mom and while Kufner helped them out, the mother did not leave them with Kufner and disappear until she had a complete breakdown after her ex husbands death. Even the mother testified how Kufner helped them out.

In contrast to Mr. Curtis' opening, where he played the exact testimony to back up his remarks, the defense closing could have used actual testimony, and not just opinion. In fact, at one point, Judge Timothy Cissna sustained an objection by DDA Zach Curtis that Mr. Russo's closing "was not evidence" and then Mr. Russo ceded this was his argument.

"Jane Doe now has food, shelter, toys, clothing, stability," said Mr. Russo. "There was no report of discomfort, no report of abuse, no report of fear." Mr. Russo said that CWS and CASA supervised the girls while they were living with Kufner.

Then he brought up that there was no investigation of who Jane Doe # 1 told the accusation about Kufner touching her. She testified to that on the stand.

"I want to talk about children as witnesses in general."

"It was heart breaking to see Jane Doe testify. I said that yesterday."

"Children have problem remembering. They are prone to suggestion, They have problems with authority. They do not understand the gravity of the situation."

"There is a big difference between 20 times and daily."

"The reason she is not a better historian because she is not telling the truth. Mr. Curtis will say that she was not looking at Mr. Kufner because she was scared; it is because she is not telling the truth. It is reasonable doubt."

"Then we have (name of Jane Doe's mother). From what we heard, she is an absolute mess."

Other than that, the defense did not go after Jane Doe's mother and used only select portions of her testimony that were favorable to Kufner. 


"She had nothing but kind words to say about Mr. Kufner"; "She had doubts about Jane Doe's # 1 accusations. This is not evidence, this is my argument based on how she testified."

Mr. Russo brought up that the mother said that Jane Doe #2 did not believe Jane Doe #1. "That is reasonable doubt." What the mother testified to was that initially Jane Doe #2 did not believe Jane Doe #1 and explained why.

"The prosecution wants to make the interrogation the focus of their case because they have a weak case." Then Mr. Russo said "law enforcement only spent a couple of hours, didn't investigate. This is not an open and shut case, it's complicated."

Mr, Russo brought up that Kufner was not read his Miranda rights but Sgt. Sam Williams explained that Kufner was not in custody or being arrested, which is the reason they did not read him his rights.

"You can take snippets of what he (Kufner) said and make it suspicious." but Mr. Russo did the very same with Jane Doe, her mother's and law enforcement's testimony.

Mr. Russo ended with saying there is reasonable doubt and "there are reasonable alternatives to Kufner's guilt"