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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

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Child-rape case heads to the jury

Former Beaverton officer accused of assaulting girl, 5; he says victim coached

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Jury deliberations are set to begin Friday in the trial of former Beaverton, Ore., police Officer Christopher Warren, who is accused of raping a 5-year-old girl with a pencil last year inside his central Vancouver home.

Warren, 34, is charged with first-degree child rape.

During closing arguments Thursday in Clark County Superior Court, attorneys sparred over whether the girl, who is now 6, gave consistent accounts of the alleged sexual abuse.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Camara Banfield played a video recording of the girl’s statements during a forensic interview in May 2013 at the Clark County Children’s Justice Center.

“She is very detailed,” Banfield said. “She even corrects the interviewer: He didn’t change my clothes. He just pulled down my pants.”

The prosecutor said the footage shows that the girl wasn’t coached or influenced to claim that Warren raped her.

“This isn’t a child going along with what an adult is saying,” she said.

Warren’s attorney, Louis Byrd Jr., argued that Warren’s ex-wife, Dina Sanchez, coached the little girl into making the allegations because she was bitter over Warren’s decision to divorce her and to be with another woman.

“Revenge is best served cold,” Byrd said.

Warren had recently been engaged to the other woman, Meliah Colon, at the time the allegations were made.

“Just when your enemy is about to reap the reward of the pain he has inflicted on you — a new wife, a new family — that’s when you extract the planned revenge. That’s exactly what happened here. Christopher Warren is innocent.”

Byrd said there are several inconsistencies in the information the girl gave to authorities, which should create reasonable doubt.

For example, the girl said she never told Sanchez about the abuse, Byrd said.

Earlier Thursday, defense expert Wendy Bourg, a licensed psychologist in Oregon, testified via teleconference that she reviewed the forensic interview. She said that while the interviewer did a good job of not asking any leading questions, she failed to probe into inconsistencies in the girl’s statements and to inquire about conversations the girl might have had with other adults about the alleged rape.

“This man is on trial for his life predicated on the fantasy of a 5-year-old with the assistance of a vengeful (woman),” Byrd said.

In a rebuttal, Banfield said, “I hope you are listening to what he was saying because it was nonsense.

“She was entirely consistent through the entire thing,” Banfield said. “There has been no evidence whatsoever that this was some kind of planned revenge.”

Dr. Kimberly Copeland of the Legacy Health system testified Tuesday that she examined the girl about four to six weeks after the alleged sexual abuse. There was no evidence of an injury, she said. However, the girl told the doctor that “it hurt when I went potty one time,” according to an audio recording played in court.

Testimony in Warren’s trial began Tuesday.

Christopher Warren is no longer employed by 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. The jury in this week’s trial did not hear about those allegations.

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. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail, two years of probation, 100 hours of community service and $3,000 in restitution.

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