A woman testified in Dukes County Superior Court this week that she was raped by an Island man while she was a child. The woman, now 26, testified Tuesday and Wednesday at the trial of Carlos G. Stevenson, who is charged with rape of a child with force, and five counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14.
“It felt shameful that it happened,” the woman told the 15-member jury — 12 of whom will decide the case. The panel includes 12 women and three men. The trial was delayed for a short period on Tuesday as a male juror was replaced for an undisclosed reason.
Mr. Stevenson, 50, was born in Mexico, but is a U.S. citizen. He owns Mosher Photo in Vineyard Haven. His wife, Heidi Ray Stevenson, is from Martha’s Vineyard, and they have two sons, 21 and 19 years old. His family was in the courtroom both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Judge Mitchell Kaplan explained to the jury that the alleged incidents occurred between 2001 and 2003, and the charge of rape of a child referred to alleged “digital rape,” the use of fingers in a forced sexual act on a child under the age of 16. The five counts of indecent assault and battery of a child under the age of 14 referred to “intentional touching” of the alleged victim in that same time period.
Mr. Stevenson, who was indicted in 2014, has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
According to The Times archives, the indictments against Stevenson were upheld last year by the Supreme Judicial Court. A Superior Court judge had dismissed the charges against Stevenson in May 2015 because the woman did not testify before the grand jury. The SJC ruling found that the she was not required to testify, and that a police detective was able to articulate the facts of the case clearly for jurors.
In the prosecution’s opening arguments on Tuesday, prosecutor Laura Marshard told the jury that the alleged victim, who at the time was between the ages of 10 and 13 and lived next door to Mr. Stevenson, babysat for and was playmates with his two sons, and that the incidents occurred in the Stevensons’ home and at a neighbor’s home while they were away.
The defense attorney, Janice Bassil, said the allegations were false. There is no physical evidence, no DNA, no confession, and no eyewitnesses, she said.
The woman, Ms. Bassil told the jury, is “a troubled young girl,” who has struggled with substance use; she cited alcohol and heroin.
The woman’s boyfriend notified police in 2014 about the incidents, according to the defense. On June 26, 2014, police interviewed the young woman about the allegations at the Dukes County Courthouse, on the same day she was there to be arraigned for her second offense for driving under the influence.
The alleged victim, who claims she was sexually assaulted by Mr. Stevenson when she was around the age of 10, detailed the alleged assaults over two days of testimony at the Dukes County Superior Court in Edgartown.
As she testified, the woman hung her head while recounting the events. She told the court that on one occasion, Mr. Stevenson showed her pornography on his computer, and was stroking his penis, which was out of his pants. The woman said he then grabbed her hand and put it on his penis to stroke it.
She said Mr. Stevenson grabbed her inappropriately, “less than five times,” when she walked up the basement stairs of the Stevensons’ home. His two sons would be in front of the alleged victim, and Mr. Stevenson would be behind her, grabbing at her butt, both above and under her clothes, she said.
The alleged victim said Mr. Stevenson took her to classes at Island Gymnastics in West Tisbury, carpooling with his two sons, and that she would sit in the front seat of his truck while the boys were in the back seat, and Mr. Stevenson would try to touch her vagina in the car.
While she was pet-sitting for John Pearson, who lived next door to the alleged victim and the Stevensons on Mayflower Lane, the woman said that Mr. Stevenson came up behind her, took her by the shoulder, and covered her mouth as she was unlocking the door to the Pearsons’ home to feed their cat one evening. She said he then brought her into the house, put her on the couch and inserted his fingers in her vagina, and told her “it was OK.”
After the incident at the Pearsons’ home, she said she stopped babysitting for the Stevensons and pet-sitting for the Pearsons. She told Ms. Marshard that she didn’t want to be involved with “the uncomfortable ways” she was being treated.
When further questioned as to what she was referring to, the woman said, “The inappropriate sexual acts between an adult male and myself, as a child. I didn’t want any more involvement.”
She said she didn’t tell her parents because Mr. Stevenson told her not to, threatening that he would harm her family or her pets, and because she was embarrassed.
Testimony concluded on Wednesday with the woman’s mother breaking down on the stand as she recounted details of her daughter’s childhood. She recalled Mr. Stevenson being the one who would call to ask if her daughter could babysit for his children, and she also recalled her daughter suddenly wanting to stop doing so, as well as stop pet-sitting for the Pearsons. She said her daughter would ask her to go with her to feed the cats. “She just very suddenly stopped wanting to go,” the mother said.
When Mr. Pearson was questioned by the defense, he told the court that he had told police, after being questioned in 2014, that he still had the couch the alleged victim said Mr. Stevenson assaulted her on.
“It was a cloth couch,” Ms. Bassil said. “Did anyone come to your house to swab the cloth or cut a piece of material from it?” Mr. Pearson said no one came to get a sample of the couch, and that he no longer has it.
Because the alleged incidents happened nearly 20 years ago, testimony thus far has lacked details and specifics, with witnesses sometimes answering that they don’t recall.
For example, when the woman, then in high school, took a survey a fellow female student conducted about sexual assault, she said she was molested by a neighbor when she was 9 years old. As the defense pointed out, she did not yet live next door to Mr. Stevenson at that time.
“No, I did not,” she said; “I misspoke on the age I told her.”
Two sets of photos and one map were submitted as evidence on Tuesday. The map was an aerial Google Map image of Mayflower Lane, the street where both Mr. Stevenson and the child at the time lived in Vineyard Haven. The young woman identified her house at the time, and the two houses where the incidents occurred.
One set of photos detailed the neighbor’s home, and the other set detailed the Stevensons’ basement, which the alleged victim identified.
Evidence submitted on Wednesday involved the defense submitting documents that looked to prove when the family actually moved to Mayflower Lane, because there were discrepancies in police reports and testimony. The father of the alleged victim said they moved to the home in 2002. Defense confirmed his daughter was 12 years old at the time. A Tisbury occupancy permit for the Mayflower Lane home was submitted as evidence, dated June 30, 2003. A deed to the home, as well as information regarding when they took out a mortgage for the home, were also submitted. An insurance certificate, a Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) certificate, a bill of sale, and a window sticker for the father’s truck, which he said he purchased after they moved to Mayflower Lane, were also submitted, dating to the spring of 2003, listing the family’s address as Look Street, at the home they lived in prior to moving to Mayflower Lane.
Testimony is expected to continue Thursday morning.