Jenifer Nerone, a registered nurse and head of the county’s Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner unit testified about what appeared to be a bruise on the girl’s vagina consistent with blunt-force trauma. The evidence, Nerone said, was consistent with the girl’s account of the attack. Under cross examination, however, Nerone conceded that the spot could have been caused by other factors, like a naturally occurring variation in skin tone or an accident (later, under re-cross by Senior Assistant District Attorney Katherine Van Loan, Nerone said in her opinion blunt-force trauma was the most likely cause of the discoloration).
“There’s no tear, there’s nothing physical here,” Flaherty told the jury in his summation. “There’s nothing you can put your hands on.”
Accuser’s story consistent
Van Loan, head of the District Attorney’s new Special Victims Unit, countered in her own summation that the accuser’s testimony about a brief, very painful assault had remained consistent throughout the legal proceedings and jibed with Nerone’s findings. Van Loan also pointed out that the girl had told her mother about the alleged attack as soon as Turner was gone. The DNA evidence, Van Loan argued, was also consistent with the child’s account. Finally, Van Loan pointed out that Flaherty had offered no reason why the 10-year-old girl would lie about the encounter in a prolonged and traumatic legal process.
“What does [the accuser] get out of this?” Van Loan asked the jury. “What motive does she have?”
Turner, who was looking at a potential 25 years in state prison on the attempted rape charge, faces a maximum of one year in jail for the criminal contempt conviction.
