Detective Says Girl Molested By Kidnappers

One of two young sisters kidnapped in Michigan by their former baby sitter was molested as many as three times during the five-day ordeal, a detective testified Wednesday.

The 6-year-old girl said Ronald Stafford molested her in a Daytona Beach hotel room after the abduction Friday from the sisters’ Galesburg, Mich., home, Daytona Beach Detective John Adazzio testified at a bail hearing.

Stafford, 21, was arrested along with his 17-year-old brother Lee and Ricky Geer, 19, on federal kidnapping charges Tuesday after a nationwide search.

Ronald Stafford, the girls’ former baby sitter, has a juvenile record for sexual assault.

The girls’ father, Jesse Hainer, said he had known Stafford for more than a year but later told him to stay away from his daughters.

“I think it was revenge,” Hainer said Wednesday. “When I figured out what kind of person he was, his background, I didn’t want him around here.”

A medical examination of the 6-year-old showed no evidence of penetration, Adazzio said. Her 9-year-old sister told investigators she was not molested and refused a doctor’s examination, Adazzio said.

FBI agent James Dougal testified that Geer said Ronald Stafford had fondled of one or both girls and had taken one to the woods for an hour.

Ronald Stafford said that Geer and his brother pinched the girls in the buttocks and grabbed the girls’ legs, Dougal testified.

But Ronald Stafford’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, denied that his client sexually molested the girls and said the FBI misinterpreted the 6-year-old girl’s statements.

Ronald Stafford said the three men planned the sisters’ abduction for two weeks because they thought the girls’ father was mistreating them, Dougal testified.

The girls were abducted Friday as they got off a school bus.