NORTHAMPTON — The jury in the case of a former Easthampton man alleged to have raped and assaulted two young girls got a clear directive from attorneys on both sides Wednesday as they prepared to begin deliberations — it’s up to you to determine who is lying.
The 12-member jury was sent into deliberations in Hampshire County Superior Court after attorneys for the prosecution and defense gave closing statements in the trial of Kevin DiRocco, 44, who now lives in Springfield.
DiRocco was charged in October 2015 with aggravated rape and abuse of a child, two counts of rape and abuse of a child, and seven counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and repeatedly denied the allegations. This is the third trial on the charges.
He is accused of sexually assaulting two girls he knew in Easthampton between 1998 and 2009. The assaults took place when the alleged victims were between 3 or 4 years old and ended when they were 13 or 14, according to court documents. The Gazette generally does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault. DiRocco and the alleged victims were known to each other.
“They are lying about what they say he did to them,” defense attorney Rachel Weber said in her closing arguments.
Weber said the evidence to support that statement can be found in several layers of inconsistencies in each woman’s testimony, as well as in relation to other people’s testimonies. Those inconsistencies, Weber said, suggested the women were not truthful.
One instance Weber highlighted was testimony from one of the woman who had previously testified that an alleged assault occurred when she was around 3 years old but during her testimony said it occurred when she was 7 or 8 years old. Weber characterized that as not misremembering but a lie.
Countering arguments she expected Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Caleb Weiner to make in his closing, Weber stressed that DiRocco’s testimony has not changed over time. She said new information revealed over the course of this trial was a result of not being asked about those details in the past.
“When you consider all of the inconsistencies, the way in which their (the women’s) stories just don’t make sense … it’s clear they are not telling the truth,” Weber said, urging the jury to return a not guilty verdict and end the “nightmare” DiRocco has been facing because of the false accusations.
Beginning his closing statement, attorney Weiner told the jury that there were many things that make the truth better than lies and one thing in particular made that so — the truth is simpler to remember, he said.
“One feature of this case is memory,” he said. “It’s a critical feature.”
Focusing on Weber’s argument, Weiner said that the defense attorney wanted the jury to focus on one or two parts of the women’s testimonies she described as inconsistencies.
“Someone is lying to you and you get to decide who it is,” Weiner said.
Weiner highlighted “detail, after detail, after detail,” the women provided about the alleged incidents like a specific rag that was used to clean up after an alleged assault or words used during another alleged assault. Weiner also questioned what could possibly motivate the women to perjure themselves.
Weiner argued that DiRocco avoided answering simple questions, and that his testimony over the course of this trial differed from his first trial.
During his first trial in May 2017, DiRocco was found not guilty of an additional charge of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14. A jury, which deliberated for 10 hours over two days, was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the remaining charges and a mistrial was declared.
A second trial on the charges in April 2018 ended in a mistrial shortly after it began following the dismissal of multiple jurors after opening statements.
His third trial began Friday morning after four days of jury selection and the case was handed to the jury for deliberations Wednesday afternoon. Throughout the course of the trial, jurors heard testimony from both of the women, who are now in their 20s, as well as DiRocco and his father.
The prosecution called so-called expert witnesses, which included a doctor who conducts and evaluates forensic exams of children and an assistant professor of psychology who studies children’s memories for traumatic and emotional events.
Emily Cutts can be reached at ecutts@gazettenet.com.