After nearly five hours of deliberation in a child molestation
trial involving alleged cult leader Richarde Monde Thursday, the
jury postponed issuing a verdict while they determine whether the
Aromas man forced a child to touch him inappropriately to teach her
about her sexuality.
Hollister – After nearly five hours of deliberation in a child molestation trial involving alleged cult leader Richarde Monde Thursday, the jury postponed issuing a verdict while they determine whether the Aromas man forced a child to touch him inappropriately to teach her about her sexuality.
After the attorneys finished their closing arguments Thursday morning, jury members spent the rest of the day perusing evidence presented to them over the two-day trial period. Between testimony from the 14-year-old victim who testified that Monde ordered her to touch his penis when she was 7 years old and women who testified in defense of Monde that the whole thing was an accident, jurors had a plethora of bizarre and salacious information to sort through to make their decision.
After the jury heard testimony from the 14-year-old victim about the alleged indiscretion, her mother, Jessica Holt and another woman, Wynona Tara, who is ensnared in a child custody battle with Monde, testified that while living in the communal household with the man and five other women they were routinely forced to perform lewd sex acts on him and the other women.
But Monde’s attorney, Arthur Cantu, called women to the stand who are currently living with Monde who testified that the alleged molestation was purely accidental and that there isn’t and never has been a cult. They testified that none of the bawdy and degrading things the other women testified to were true, and the victim also testified that she never saw Monde have sexual relations with anyone.
“If you believe the prosecution’s byline, this house was a 24-hour orgy, oral sex three times a day, running around naked,” Cantu said in his closing statements. “If this was this sex-orgy cult-brainwashing thing, what about (Monde’s daughter)? She never saw people walking around naked. (The victim) didn’t see any sexual conduct at all.”
He also focused on his theory that the women levied the accusation against Monde as a way to get the rights to the $850,000 property located in the hills above Aromas and win custody of Tara’s child, which Monde fathered.
“This is when the claws come out,” Cantu said in his closing statement. “This is when the cats are scratching and they will say the ugliest things because they want to win.”
However, Deputy District Attorney Denny Wei hammered home Monde’s alleged proclivity for forcible sex, and referenced a witness from Hawaii who testified that Monde forced her to orally copulate him in 1986. But Cantu pointed out that charges were never filed by the district attorney’s office in Hawaii, and Monde’s sexual history and lifestyle, while unusual, doesn’t profile him as a pedophile.
“Some people have a proclivity to put little girls and little boys in their beds and you can’t stop them. But you look at their history and they’re registered sex offenders,” Cantu said. “If I was to bet, in the future this man is going to have sex with an another adult woman – not a child. You may not like his lifestyle and think he’s going to hell, but it has nothing to do with this case.”
But Wei claims Monde’s lifestyle has everything to do with this case, and that after the alleged incident took place he told some of the women he was living with that he had done it for the child’s own “sexual enlightenment,” he said in his closing statements. He also refuted Cantu’s claims that the victim, Holt and Tara were lying because they gave different dates when the alleged incident took place.
“He’s caught. He’s made his admission to people and (his defense) is clearly a hastily-gathered, illogical story,” Wei said. “And if the three of them were going to come together and give you a story, they would have rehearsed it. If the three of them came with the exact same story you should be concerned. They didn’t form a plan to get the defendant. It makes sense that they wouldn’t remember the exact dates when they occurred.”
But in his defense of Monde, Cantu painted a more innocent picture of a child’s game gone awry which led to the felony allegation.
The women who testified in Monde’s defense said that while Monde was living with the women and a host of young children, the kids would often play a game called “sneak on dad,” where they would sneak up on Monde and jump on him while he was in bed. According to their testimony, the victim jumped on Monde while he was in bed naked and accidentally brushed up against his penis.
Wei, who reiterated portions of the women’s testimony in his closing arguments, argued the existence of the game because the victim, her mother and Monde’s daughter all testified that they had never heard of such a game.
“The defense asked (the victim) about sneak on dad and she had no idea what that term meant. His daughter didn’t know,” Wei said. “You’re expected to believe this is a game all the children played? That doesn’t make sense.”
But Cantu claimed it wasn’t the game that was insensible, it was the prosecution’s failure for not calling Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Chris Green to the stand – the police officer who took the initial molestation report.
He also questioned Holt’s motives in reporting the incident to Green in December of 2004 – years after the alleged crime took place.
“When did she go charging to law enforcement to make this accusation? The first time she ever makes an accusation is in a family law declaration to help her friend,” Cantu said. “Tell me the very first police officer that testified to you. That chair is empty. Where’s Detective Green? The only green thing I see there is the back of that chair.”
Wei refuted Cantu’s claims that Holt didn’t tell anyone about the molestation until years after the alleged act because she made it up to bolster Tara’s child custody case. Holt testified that she confided in a counselor well after the alleged act, who directed her to contact Child Protective Services. But even then, she didn’t make a police report until Tara became embroiled in the child custody battle in 2003, which is when Holt signed a declaration that Monde had molested her daughter.
“Jessica reported it to CPS in 2001, before legal custody issues. Wynona hadn’t even left the house at that time,” Wei said. “Unless (the victim) is a mind-reader, how could it be possible that she reported something in 2001 for something that didn’t happen until 2003.”
The jury is expected to reach a verdict today. If a guilty verdict is returned, Monde could face up to three years in prison.
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or em*******@fr***********.com
