NORTHAMPTON — A prosecutor Tuesday laid out for a jury what he said was written on the heart and soul of a young woman who has accused a former South Hadley man of raping her when she was 5.
“Child sexual abuse is different in some respects than other crimes that a jury might be called upon to consider,” Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Caleb Weiner said on the opening day of Guy Bush Jr.’s second trial in Hampshire Superior Court. “The injuries that (the girl) suffered are not injuries that appear on the surface.”
The Gazette generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.
Bush, 47, of Grand Island, New York, has pleaded not guilty to charges of forcible rape of a child and three counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. He was arraigned on the charges in October 2014. His first trial ended in a mistrial in May 2016.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I submit to you the evidence will show, if you listen to (the girl), how these horrific experiences are written into her heart and even into her soul,” Weiner said.
Providing details of the alleged digital rape, Weiner said Bush did unspeakable things to the girl.
Bush’s attorney David Mintz told the jury that every story has two sides.
“It’s not about what happened. It’s about what didn’t happen,” Mintz said. “It’s not about whodunit, it’s about whether something was done at all.”
At the time of the alleged incidents, Mintz told the jury, the girl’s mother and father were undergoing a separation and that Bush was her mother’s paramour. In addition to her parents’ split, Mintz said, the girl was no longer the baby of the family because her mother had recently had another child with Bush.
“She was angry about her parents splitting up,” Mintz said. “You will hear, as late as May of last year, she was still angry, and her parents split up in large part because of Mr. Bush.”
Testifying for the second time in under a year, the alleged victim was the first to take the stand, detailing what she said happened over the course of five months in 2001 and 2002.
Now 20, she told the court that she had moved to a home in South Hadley with her mother, Bush and other siblings in July 2001.
Shortly after she turned 5, she said, Bush would come into her room sometimes at night when her mother was at work and would ask her to play games.
“He would ask me to take my clothes off and since he was older, I would, because he was in charge. I would take my clothes off, he would tell me to sit on the bed, (and I) would do that until he told me what to do next,” she said.
“He told me I had to listen to him or he was going to hurt me, so I did what he told me to do,” she said.
Recounting the alleged rape and how it caused her physical pain, the woman became emotional and grabbed tissues to wipe away her tears. Her attorney then asked for a recess to allow her to regain her composure.
The woman also testified Bush made her touch his genitals once.
She told the jury that the first person she told about the alleged abuse was a friend during the summer vacation before her first year of high school.
“I thought that I could trust her and I could. She was someone I could trust,” the woman said.
Amid objections from Mintz, she said she did not feel supported by her mother or her father before telling her friend.
Throughout her more than three-hour testimony, the woman spoke in a soft voice, at times being prompted by the judge to speak louder.
On cross-examination, Mintz regularly cited transcripts from the May 2016 trial as well as transcripts from an interview in 2012 with the assistant district attorney.
“Do you remember, you told (the friend) ‘I was raped when I was 5 and I just needed to tell someone,’” Mintz asked.
“I don’t remember saying that,” the woman said.
Later, when the alleged victim’s friend took the stand, she testified the girl confided in her during the school year of 2011 and at her home.
Mintz also presented the alleged victim with testimony from the initial district attorney’s interview in 2012 that contradicted her testimony Tuesday morning.
Mintz asked her to recall an incident in 2008 when the Department of Child and Family Services was called on an unrelated matter and she and her older sister were asked if they had been touched inappropriately.
At the time, the woman said, she did not speak up because she said she didn’t think it was a safe environment.
Following a brief recess, South Hadley Detective Trudy Romanovicz took the stand to testify for the defense. She was assigned to investigate the case in May 2012 and ultimately brought the case forward in 2014.
Questioned by Weiner, Romanovicz confirmed that when a child is under 18 neither police nor the district attorney’s office can work directly with a child without their parents’ consent.
Romanovicz described the woman’s mother and father as “less than cooperative.”
Speaking by phone about Bush on Monday, his sister Tara McLean said she has been by his side all along.
“I believed in his innocence since day one and so has everyone who knows him,” McLean said.
She added that she has complete confidence in Mintz.
“I think the truth will come out with this trial,” she said. “I feel very, very confident my brother will come home.”
The trial is set to resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
This story has been updated. Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.