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December 10, 2004
Girl testifies abuse began when she was 7
She takes the stand by closed-circuit TV in Lehigh County case.
By Debbie Garlicki -- Of The Morning Call
While her alleged abuser sat in a courtroom, a 12-year-old girl testified in a separate room Wednesday and described for a Lehigh County jury how the man molested her until the abuse stopped when she got genital warts.
Daniel T. Kerrigan, 51, is believed to be the first child-abuse defendant in the county who didn't come face to face with the alleged victim in a courtroom since Pennsylvania allowed children in certain circumstances to testify via closed circuit television.
The girl, prosecuting attorney and defense lawyer were in a room on the eighth floor while Kerrigan, the judge and jury watched her testimony on televisions set up in the nearby courtroom.
With a wireless microphone, the judge was able to communicate with the parties in the other room.
An officer with the county drug task force snaked wires throughout the courtroom and set up the equipment before the trial started Wednesday. Judge Robert L. Steinberg, who admitted he was a little nervous about the equipment working properly, praised the officer as he dismantled the equipment after the girl testified.
''I couldn't have asked for it to work any better,'' the judge said.
The girl testified the abuse started when she was about 7 years old and that it happened when she lived in New Jersey and Catasauqua. Kerrigan lived in New York when he was arrested last year.
The girl testified she told her mother that Kerrigan had touched her inappropriately but that her mother didn't believe her until she got genital warts.
''I didn't want to believe her,'' the girl's mother told the jury.
The mother said she confronted Kerrigan about her daughter's allegations and he denied molesting the girl. The mother told the jury that her daughter would say Kerrigan touched her, then say he didn't.
The mother didn't believe her daughter until a doctor confirmed the genital warts, according to testimony.
In his opening statement, Senior Deputy District Attorney Matthew Falk asked the jury to question how a 12-year-old girl gets genital warts.
The mother said that Kerrigan told her that he had a genital wart many years ago.
Shortly after being told that the girl had warts, Kerrigan tried to commit suicide, Falk said. A police officer found Kerrigan in his car with a hose going from the exhaust pipe to one of the windows. That, Falk said, shows consciousness of guilt.
Defense lawyer Brett J. Riegel said Kerrigan tried to kill himself because he had many problems in his life in addition to being accused of something he said he didn't do.
The defense has tried to show that the girl is lying, that the warts could have come from someone else and that the prosecution didn't do DNA testing to see if Kerrigan passed the virus that causes the warts to the girl.
Dr. John Van Brakle, one of several doctors who examined the girl, said warts are not conclusive for sexual abuse. But based on the girl's account of what happened and the physical evidence, he concluded she had been sexually abused.
The doctor acknowledged that a medical text on diagnosing child abuse says that the warts can be transmitted to someone by sharing a towel, bath water or a bathing suit.
Van Brakle said comparing the girl's warts to Kerrigan would only yield results if Kerrigan's body was shedding the virus, or going to the outside of the body. People can have the virus and not have outbreaks for years, he said.
One of the things the jury will have to decide is whether the virus, which stays with someone for life, qualifies as serious bodily injury under the law.
Kerrigan is charged with several felonies, including rape of a child and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, both with serious bodily injury.
Van Brakle said the girl's condition will have to be monitored because the virus has been associated with a variety of cancers, including cervical cancer.
In 2003, voters approved amendments to the state Constitution allowing children to testify by videotape or closed-circuit television if facing their alleged perpetrator would affect their ability to communicate what reportedly happened.
After a therapist testified at a hearing Tuesday that the girl would be severely traumatized by having to testify in front of Kerrigan, Steinberg ruled that the girl met the qualifications under the law for testifying in a different manner.
Posted by Nealus at December 10, 2004 03:14 PM
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