Stepdaughter told differing stories in sex case because she was concerned about breaking up family
A 17-year-old girl who said her stepfather had sex with her two years ago acknowledged giving differing versions of the story during the investigation and explained she did so “because I didn’t know who to tell the truth to.â€
The girl, who testified earlier in the day her stepfather, Henry D. Sanders, offered to replace her broken iPod with a new one if she would have sex with him, said she also feels partly responsible for the situation two years ago because “I allowed it to happen.â€
Sanders is on trial on one count of aggravated sexual assault on a child.
Prosecutors are scheduled to resume their presentation today in District Judge John J. “Trey†McClendon’s court.
The Avalanche-Journal is not identifying the girl because of a policy against naming the victims or alleged victims of sexual assault.
The girl said she was concerned Child Protective Services would split up her family. The girl has two brothers, one older and one younger.
The girl’s mother, Lee Ann Sanders, said Henry Sanders came into the family when the girl was 9 months old, and the girl views him as her father.
“I still love him as a father, and I still respect him,†the girl said.
Both said the girl’s biological father has not been part of their lives for years. Lee Ann Sanders testified the biological father is in prison, and added she doesn’t know where.
The girl gave a detailed account of the Saturday morning two years ago when the incident happened, saying Sanders offered several times to buy the new iPod if she would have sex with him.
She said she was on her parents’ bed watching TV with Sanders. Her two brothers had left the house, and Sanders had gotten up and locked the doors.
She dozed off for a while, she said, and later, Sanders pulled down her shorts and panties and had sex with her.
The girl, who was 15 when the alleged incident occurred, testified for more than an hour, including a statement that Sanders had sex with her a year earlier when she was 14 years old.
“He told me not to tell anyone because he’d go to jail, and that would break up the family, and my mom would be mad,†the girl said.
She said her mother found them in bed during that incident, and yelled at Sanders, but filed no police report.
Lee Ann Sanders testified she ran out of the room the first time she found her husband and daughter in bed, and was going to call the police when Henry Sanders grabbed her and told her, “What happens in the house, stays in the house.â€
In court, prosecutor Jennifer Bassett questioned the mother about giving conflicting statements about that incident, initially telling investigators her husband was lying on top of the covers on the daughter’s bed, wearing boxer shorts. But after finding them in bed together the second time, Lee Ann Sanders told police that in the earlier incident, her husband was naked in bed with the girl.
Questioning Lee Ann Sanders took much of the afternoon session, as the prosecution asked her why she simply ran out of the house after finding her husband in bed with her daughter a second time, rather than sticking around to see if the girl was alright.
Lee Ann Sanders said she’d become concerned there was something unusual in the father-stepdaughter relationship when a minister suggested the two were acting more like lovers than like a parent and teenage child.
“He paid her more attention than he paid me,†said Lee Ann Sanders, who said she couldn’t kick Henry Sanders out of the house after the earlier incident because “he is my husband and his name was on the lease.â€
Both mother and daughter testified Sanders was very possessive about the girl, refusing to let her go out and telling her nobody would be good enough for her.
Lee Ann Sanders testified to coming home and finding Henry Sanders in the girl’s bedroom, choking her because she’d talked with a boy on the telephone.
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