NORTHAMPTON — After the prosecution rested on the third day of testimony in the trial for a man accused of raping a 15-year-old patient at a center for troubled youth, a woman testified Monday that the alleged victim had consensual sex with another staffer at the facility.
Alphonso Cintron, 34, of Springfield, is a former night supervisor at the Grove — a Northeast Center for Youth and Families residential treatment program in Northampton that closed in 2012. He previously pleaded not guilty in Hampshire Superior Court to charges of rape and abuse of a child as well as child abuse.
Cintron is being held on $50,000 bail.
Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Caleb Weiner contends that Cintron forced the alleged victim to perform oral sex on him in exchange for cigarettes.
Michela Calabrese, 21, of Longmeadow, who lived with the alleged victim at the time, said the woman, now 22, never alerted her to any kind of sexual encounter with Cintron in the summer of 2009.
Calabrese did, however, testify that the alleged victim told her — in great detail — about the three or four times she had consensual sex with Fabian Williams, another overnight staffer at the Grove who stands accused of raping the then-15-year-old around the same time.
Williams, who is being tried separately, has pleaded not guilty to rape and two counts of aggravated rape of a child. The charges against him involve at least two different alleged victims, one of them being Cintron’s accuser.
Additionally, Cintron failed to report to authorities that the 15-year-old girl had been raped by Williams, said Weiner.
Calabrese told the court that there were definitely sexual encounters between Williams and the girl. But it was consensual, she testified.
“She would give graphic details,” Calabrese said in court. “She enjoyed it. She had fun doing it. She did it over several weeks.”
Suzanne Koch, a forensic interviewer in the district attorney’s office, testified Monday that Cintron approached the girl multiple times in attempts to persuade her into performing oral sex for cigarettes. Koch said the accuser was approached by Cintron once the week before the incident in question while the two smoked outside.
This was the first time he asked her to have sexual relations, she testified, and the girl refused Cintron’s alleged proposal. And on the day of the alleged rape, Koch testified that Cintron asked the girl at least three times before she finally complied.
“(The victim) never described it as something he forced her to perform, correct?” Tracy E. Duncan, Cintron’s defense attorney asked Koch in court.
“No,” Koch testified. “She did not.”
Before testimony Monday, jurors were led by attorneys on a short guided tour of the facility where the alleged crimes occurred. The tour was closed to the media.
The defense is expected to rest its case Tuesday when the trial resumes at 9 a.m.
Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com.