NORTHAMPTON — The Florence man on trial for allegedly raping a young girl and indecently assaulting another took the stand Tuesday in his own defense.
Stanley Michalski testified he did not regularly sleep in the same room as the girls he is accused of assaulting, contrary to what prosecutors said during opening arguments. His testimony was supported by other members of his family.
He also testified that one of the girls touched him inappropriately.
Michalski, 31, has pleaded not guilty in Hampshire Superior Court to four counts of child rape, two counts of indecent assault and battery of a child, two counts of dissemination of harmful matter to a minor, one count each of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, posing a child in a state of nudity, possession of child pornography and intimidation of a witness.
However, Judge Richard Carey on Tuesday dismissed the intimidation charge after defense counsel successfully argued a motion for a mandatory finding of not guilty on the single count. Michalski remains on house arrest after previously posting $10,000 bail.
The rest of the charges stem from allegations that Michalski sexually assaulted two young girls, now 12 and 10, who were known to him though not related, between August 2013 and September 2014. The Gazette generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.
The girls’ mother allowed them to share a bedroom with Michalski in his Florence Road home, the prosecutor told jurors during opening statements, while she and her boyfriend resided in a trailer out back.
Not so, Michalski and other members of his family each testified on Tuesday. They testified that the girls only moved into his bedroom after it became too cold to remain in the trailer, which didn’t have a heat source. Even then, Michalski moved out of his bedroom, settled in the living room and allowed the girls to inherit the space, he said.
For much of the afternoon, Michalski’s family members said he did not regularly sleep in the same room as the girls, contrary to what Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Linda Pisano said during opening statements.
His sister-in-law Ashley Michalski, 33, told jurors that she only saw him sleeping in the same room as the girls one time, but he was asleep on the floor. He’d fallen asleep there, she said, after watching television with them one evening.
Later, under questioning by his attorney, David Mintz, Michalski conceded that one of the young girls had touched him inappropriately.
Michalski was using the bathroom with the door open, he testified, and the girl came up behind him and grabbed him. He told jurors he was stunned and bolted from the bathroom without saying anything to the girl. When he was first interviewed by investigators, Michalski never mentioned the incident.
“It was so embarrassing,” he said in court. “I don’t know how I describe the feeling … being grabbed by a child like that.”
In a separate incident, Michalski testified that he was outside on a bench in his backyard while the children who lived in the house played on a trampoline.
As the kids played, he said, he watched pornography on his iPhone. One of the girls then came up from behind and asked what he was watching.
“I was too embarrassed and ashamed to even describe (what I was watching),” he testified. “So I changed the subject really fast.”
Pisano rested the prosecution’s case Tuesday morning, and the defendant will be the last witness to testify for the defense, Carey told jurors. The trial resumes Wednesday, where Stanley Michalski will be cross-examined, followed by closing arguments from each of the attorneys.
Michael Majchrowicz can be reached at mmajchrowicz@gazettenet.com.