Girl tells of sexual relationship
Thursday, August 16, 2007
The first in a series of young witnesses continued her testimony Wednesday afternoon about an illicit sexual relationship alleged between herself and Raul Manuel Magallanez Jr., who is on trial in Lyon County District Court.
The trial includes three separate cases that have been grouped together. Magallanez is charged with more than 60 counts, including rape of a minor under 14 years of age, aggravated indecent liberties with a minor, furnishing alcohol to a minor with illicit intent, aggravated intimidation of a witness and sexual exploitation of a minor.
Names of the girls, their friends who have been called to testify and their parents will not be published in The Emporia Gazette to protect the identities of the girls.
Testimony continued when the trial resumed at 9 a.m. today. Because of a schedule conflict, today’s session was expected to recess for the day at about 12:30 p.m.
Girl No. 1, who began her testimony Wednesday morning, spent much of the afternoon divulging more details of her relationship with Magallanez and a group of mutual friends who socialized together, sometimes using sex, alcohol and drugs as a common interest.
She talked of a sexual episode with the defendant near his car in a parking area tucked behind his home. Another male friend stood at the back of the car during the encounter; Magallanez called the young man to them afterwards. The girl described graphically the act that had taken place.
“We were all just drunk and just kind of trying to have fun,” the girl said.
“What were you thinking?” Assistant Lyon County Attorney Amy Aranda asked.
“I thought it was kind of fun,” the girl replied.
She had difficulty recalling specifics, such as dates, times, surroundings and other information about her time spent with the defendant.
“Is it hard to remember all the details?” Aranda asked.
“Very hard,” Girl No. 1 said. “Because it happened so many times.”
She told the court she become upset with Magallanez when one of the teenaged boys in their circle told her that Magallanez was “messing with a couple of girls.”
She testified that she drove her mother’s van to Braum’s to meet Magallanez and talk with him. He got into the van and asked for her help in dealing with two girls who were saying he had sex with them.
“He said that they were just talking to the cops about how he had sex with them and he told me there was a girl ... that likes him and he told her he didn’t want to be with her,” Girl No. 1 said. “... He was, like, ‘No, I swear I didn’t mess with them.’”
He asked if she had talked to police, she said, and she told him she had not.
“He told me he did not want to go to prison,” the girl said.
Girl had denied contact
During cross-examination, defense attorney Julia Spainhour asked the girl about a conversation she had in December 2006 with Emporia Police Detective Sgt. Mark Schondelmaier, in which she talked about the videotape Magallanez recorded during a sexual encounter involving the girl, the defendant and her then-boyfriend.
Spainhour also asked if she remembered telling one of the group of friends that she was working undercover for Schondelmaier.
Spainhour questioned the girl about whether her current boyfriend knew Manuel only because of his association with her. The girl said it was not a result of knowing her.
“They just smoked marijuana and drank a lot together,” the girl said, adding that Magallanez and the boyfriend also were involved in a car club.
The defense attorney mentioned that in November 2006 interview with special investigator Angela Proehl at the Advocacy Center, the girl denied any sexual contact and had said that she cared about Magallanez but was “in love” with his nephew.
At a second interview at the Advocacy Center in February, the girl talked about the sexual relationships.
“You were mad because they didn’t want to have anything to do with you, right?” Spainhour asked.
“No,” the girl replied.
Also during the afternoon, EPD detective Lisa Sage described executing a search warrant on Dec. 6, 2006, at Magallanez’s home. Among the items seized was a videocamera in a backpack-type bag. Sage testified that there were no tapes in the camera bag or in the camera itself that would fit the camera.
Sage said that in addition to the video equipment, officers were looking for cell phones, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, notes and letters, CDs and DVDs, photographs and other items pertaining to inappropriate conduct with a minor. A computer and disks were taken during the search.
Sex at age 14
Girl No.1 — one of three underaged girls alleged as victims in the complaints — said she was 14 when her relationship with Magallanez began not too long after she met her teenaged boyfriend through a friend on an Internet site in July 2005.
The boyfriend introduced her to Magallanez, his uncle, who frequently brought the boy to the girl’s house.
The boyfriend subsequently began spending more time with his friends and the girl said she suspected he was using drugs. She and Magallanez, whom she called Manuel, became closer. They met almost daily and talked about her boyfriend and occasionally other topics.
She said Magallanez would call her frequently and pick her up after her mother and stepfather were asleep.
The defendant first started talking to her about sex in late September or early October, she said, and early in October 2005 they had sexual intercourse.
“I was at his house and we were drinking vodka and we were in his room and it was really late at night and I was laying on his bed and he started talking sexual things to me,” Girl No.1 said.
The girl said she and Magallanez had sexual intercourse after that.
“I just remember that I think we had sex maybe about every week,” she testified.
She described in detail several other sexual encounters between them, as well as another encounter involving herself, Magallanez and his nephew. She said Magallanez videotaped some of the latter episode.
She said over a period of time the two had sexual encounters in a variety of locations, including his bedroom, in the alley near his apartment, on a picnic table in Peter Pan Park, near Bunge and in the parking lot of Heartland Apartments near the university.
An encounter at Peter Pan Park included Magallanez and his nephew. She also said that sometimes she climbed into Magallanez’s bedroom window when his mother was home because his mother did not approve of her son’s involvement with a 14-year-old.
The girl said the defendant provided a variety of alcohol to her, including Bacardi rum, vodka, Pucker and Seagram’s wine coolers.
Alcohol tied to sex
The girl testified she had never had sex with Magallanez without having drunk alcohol first and that sometimes she smoked marijuana that he had supplied to her.
“Why did you never have sex with him when you weren’t intoxicated?” Assistant County Attorney Amy Aranda asked.
“I guess I just wasn’t attracted to him unless I was intoxicated or high,” Girl No.1 responded.
The girl described ways in which she posed for photographs for Magallanez. In one episode, she said Magallanez said he would take photographs of her on his cell phone and send them to the cell phone of his nephew’s new girlfriend.
The girl identified the photos in court and described circumstances under which they were taken when Aranda showed the photos to her.
In one setting, the girl said that two other young men were in the bedroom with her and Magallanez. One of them left and Girl No. 1 later said the remaining man told her Magallanez had asked the other man to leave.
She said the remaining young man told her “Manuel told him if he just got out for a minute, Manuel would let him have sex with me,” the girl said.
“... I told (him) that it wasn’t Manuel’s place to tell him who could have sex with me.”
She testified that Magallanez had tried to talk her and a girlfriend, also 14 years old, into interacting sexually together.
“He thought it would be sexy if I made out with (the other girl),” Girl No.1 testified. “I ... I knew that he was probably trying to have sex with both of us.”
She said that she continued to see Magallanez after he was released from jail, where he had served time from January to April 2006 on a conviction for promoting obscenities to a minor. The charge resulted from Magallanez’s taking the girl to Whispers where she purchased a vibrator and warming lotion with money she had borrowed from the defendant.
The girl’s mother got a restraining order against Magallanez after the incident involving Whispers and the girl said she knew that he was not supposed to see her after he got out of jail. In 2006, Magallanez told her that he wanted her to have his babies and suggested they run away and get married, the girl said.
The girl explained that she continued to see Magallanez because she felt close to him.
“I think it was because I actually felt like he cared about me,” she said. “At that time I didn’t have many people who cared about me and I didn’t want to lose that. ... He was just always there whenever I needed to talk to somebody. ... Whether he was acting or not, he just made me feel like he cared. He listened to me.”