Testimony starts in rape trial

Testimony got under way Monday in the nonjury trial of a Spokane man accused of raping and gravely injuring a 3-year-old boy he was baby-sitting.

Cory Preston, 26, is accused of injuring the boy so severely that he nearly died. Doctors had to perform emergency surgery to save his life.

Attorneys didn’t bother with opening statements because Spokane County Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque has been hearing testimony and arguments about the case since July 2 in the course of defense motions to suppress evidence. Testimony on unresolved motions continued Monday, but Leveque also began hearing trial evidence.

The trial is expected to continue at least through Thursday, although Leveque’s ruling on Preston’s confession to police could affect how the trial proceeds. Leveque did rule out the use of testimony of a University of Washington English Department linguist who pointed out discrepancies between the oral and verbal statements from Preston, adding the court had enough information.

Assistant Public Defender John Stine he would wait for the ruling on Preston’s confession before deciding what kind of defense to present.

Testimony Monday morning focused on the conclusion of Dr. Scott Mabee, a psychologist hired by the defense, that Preston is a person who could easily be coerced by police.

Deputy Prosecutor Kelly Fitzgerald played a tape of an interview in which Preston gave another analyst information that appeared to contradict some of what he told Mabee. Among the discrepancies, Preston said on the tape that he has a general equivalency diploma, but he told Mabee he has no diploma.

While on the stand, Preston said he needs to call officials at Spokane Community College to see if he passed a math test required to gain his GED.

Fitzgerald pointed out that Preston also said in the tape that he doesn’t like fantasy movies because he knows they aren’t true, and that he enjoyed reading the 480-page novel, “The Horse Whisperer.” Nevertheless, Mabee testified over a telephone hookup, he remained undeterred in his opinion that Preston blurs fantasy and reality, has low-normal intelligence, has trouble concentrating and may have trouble recalling events.

Stine allowed Preston to testify in connection with suppression motions but hasn’t decided whether Preston will take the stand in the trial itself.

Preston is charged with one count of first-degree assault of a child and one count of first-degree child rape.

In the tape that was played Monday, Preston said he had baby-sat for two other women before the alleged rape victim’s mother invited him to live in her apartment during September 2002 so he could baby-sit her 9-year-old daughter and her 3-year-old son while she attended classes.

According to a police report used to charge Preston, he admitted using a sexual device on the 3-year-old child on Oct. 17, 2002. Preston reportedly said he was performing a demonstration because he couldn’t explain in words when the boy asked what was happening in a pornographic video Preston was watching.

The boy’s mother told police her son told her 10 days earlier – on Oct. 7, the same day the boy underwent an appendectomy – that Preston had sexually assaulted him. She said Preston claimed the boy made up the story because he saw such a sex act in a video Preston was watching.

Officers said Preston again cited the pornographic video when they questioned him about the alleged rape 10 days later, when the boy was taken back to the hospital in critical condition.Police said Preston told them the boy cried after the assault and was vomiting. Preston called the boy’s mother, who took him to Sacred Heart Medical Center with help from her brother.

The brother told investigators the boy was limp, his lips were blue and he vomited twice on the way to the hospital.

The boy’s mother told police Preston came to the hospital at her request, but quickly said he had to go. The mother said she asked Preston why he was leaving, and he replied, “I’m not going to go through this again.”

Police said Preston had been a suspect in a sexual assault involving other children on Oct. 8, 2001.

Shortly after the 2002 incident with which he is charged, police arrested Preston with his belongings at the STA Plaza bus station in downtown Spokane.

On the stand, Preston said while being interviewed by a detective, he felt like he didn’t have a choice in what he wrote in his testimony and feared the detective.

“In my experience, if you tell a person what they want to hear, they don’t get upset,” Preston said.

Fitzgerald asked Preston if he recalled the detective being inside the interview room when he wrote the statement that detailed his assault of the boy. Preston said he couldn’t remember and struggled to explain what words the detective specifically forced Preston to include.

The testimony will continue at 9 a.m. today.