The jury trial of a former Beaverton, Ore., police officer accused of raping a 5-year-old girl began Monday in Clark County Superior Court.
Christopher R. Warren, 34, of Vancouver, is charged with first-degree child rape.
During opening statements Monday, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Camara Banfield said that Warren penetrated the girl with a pencil.
Under law, rape isn’t limited to intercourse and can include penetration with an object.
Warren’s defense attorney, Ernest Warren, countered that Christopher Warren’s ex-wife, Dina Sanchez, made up the abuse allegations in order to seek revenge on her former husband. Christopher and Ernest Warren are relatives. Christopher Warren’s other attorney in the trial is Louis Byrd Jr.
Banfield said the girl’s story has remained consistent throughout the investigation, including when investigators interviewed her on May 14, 2013, at Clark County Children’s Justice Center and when she met with her doctor. Banfield plans to present a videotape of the interview.
The prosecutor said the girl showed her doctor where Warren had abused her and then applied “medicine” on her private parts.
Warren was arrested in May 2013 on suspicion of the crime.
Ernest Warren said the alleged abuse happened in Christopher Warren’s living room when his current wife, Meliah Colon, was making dinner in an adjoining kitchen.
“It’s not true,” Ernest Warren said of the allegations. “Christopher Warren is innocent, innocent, innocent. We know this because Meliah was there, and she didn’t see this.”
He said Sanchez was disgruntled because a court had given Christopher Warren custody of their three children. She devised the child rape allegations so that she could regain custody of the children and obtain child support payments, Ernest Warren said.
Christopher Warren is no longer employed with the Beaverton Police Department, said Beaverton police spokesman Officer Mike Rowe.
He was twice terminated from the Beaverton force.
He was initially fired in 2011 after an internal investigation found that he had lied during a 2009 criminal investigation into allegations that he sexually abused a minor when he was 17, according to The Oregonian. Investigators concluded that there was probable cause to believe Warren committed the offenses, but he was not prosecuted because the alleged victim declined to cooperate, according to the newspaper.
He was later reinstated to his job but was terminated again in August 2013 after he was indicted on charges of welfare fraud in Washington County, Ore., The Oregonian reported.
He was found guilty in February of unlawfully obtaining food stamps and first-degree theft for seeking and accepting Oregon welfare benefits while he was a resident of Washington, and was sentenced to 10 days in jail, two years of probation, 100 hours of community service and $3,000 in restitution.
His trial continues today in Judge Barbara Johnson’s courtroom.
