Wide-eyed jurors watch prosecutors act out sexual assault in court

[Bond]

Wide-eyed jurors watched Thursday as two prosecutors acted out a scene in which, a woman alleges, her church pastor sexually assaulted her.

Over the defense lawyer's strong objections, Assistant District Attorneys Kelly Siegler and Paul Doyle demonstrated as the woman described what she says happened during closed-door counseling sessions with James Tucker.

Tucker, the 53-year-old former pastor at the Abundant Life Church in north Houston, could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted. He maintains that he and the woman had a consensual affair.

Urging her to recount an alleged assault in detail, Siegler played the role of the woman while Doyle acted out the minister's alleged actions.

"Where would you be positioned?" Siegler asked.

"In front of him," the 33-year-old, married woman said, describing what she said was one of several assaults in Tucker's office in 1998.

"Just like this? This close?" Siegler asked, standing chest-to-chest with Doyle.

"Now say out loud for the record ... what did he do with his hands?" Siegler said.

"He just moved his hands down, right in between my legs," the woman said as Doyle moved his hand below Siegler's waist.

Tucker denies assaulting the woman, saying she gave her consent to the encounters. He said he has repeatedly acknowledged the affair and apologized.

Prosecutors charged Tucker under a state law that makes it a crime for a "spiritual adviser" to "exploit emotional dependency" for sex.

Siegler, a veteran Harris County prosecutor, is known for aggressive questioning and occasional courtroom theatrics. She drew nationwide attention recently during the murder trial of Susan Wright, who stabbed her husband nearly 200 times.

At one point during the March trial, Siegler brought the couple's bloodstained mattress into the courtroom and, grasping a knife, straddled Doyle on the bed to demonstrate how she believed Wright killed her husband.

Tucker's attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said Thursday's demonstrations would be inflammatory and would prejudice jurors. He cited speculation that an appellate court could overturn Wright's conviction and order a new trial because of Siegler's demonstration in that trial.

"Ms. Siegler did this during the Wright case, which is probably going to be reversed because of it," DeGuerin said. "I object."

"Overruled," state District Court Judge Michael Wilkinson replied.

The attorneys could not comment afterward because Wilkinson has imposed a gag order until the trial is over.

The woman, who said she initially went to Tucker for marital counseling, told jurors how she felt about him.

"I truly believed that God had given him to our congregation as an example of someone who did hear from God," she said during her daylong testimony.

He began urging her to perform sexual acts, she said, and "I felt like this great man of God was about to fall, and I just prayed that it was not going to happen."

"I felt the burden of the church of what would happen if they knew," she added.

The woman said she was unable to resist Tucker's advances because "I still believed he was a man of God."

On cross-examination, DeGuerin showed jurors a letter the woman wrote to the pastor in 1992.

"The truth is ... every time I see you I want to hug you and tell you I love you," she wrote.

She acknowledged that on one occasion, she initiated the sexual contact in Tucker's office. She also recalled instances when she apologized for the sexual encounters and indicated that she, too, was at fault.

Tucker was arrested after the woman and her husband contacted police in 2002. He resigned in February 2002 as pastor of the congregation.

The church, at 713 E. Airtex, eventually disbanded.

Source: Houston Chronicle

Lots of sexual articles lately.

[GameMaster]

Just reading about it makes me slightly hard.

[Crash]

sicko....

eh, i hate the US legal system. If i was a judge, my only line would be "get over it"

but on the same token, i'd love to sentence criminals to public beatings. people go to court for the stupidest things, yet the ones that are serious, never get punished. (well not properly, slap on the wrist)