Woman recounts alleged sexual abuse
A 21-year-old woman testified in Fayette County court Monday that Charles Fuller abused her at different times over a six-year period. The woman, who spoke with her head down, testified that Fuller abused her on at off at his Dunbar home from the time she was 13.
The woman said abuse started when she spent the night at the Fuller home, where she slept on the couch. Later, when she moved to a bedroom, Fuller also abused her there, she testified. At one point, Fuller also abused her while they camped in his backyard, testified the woman.
The woman told jurors that she kept the abuse to herself until she admitted something happened to her boyfriend shortly after she graduated high school in 1999.
A few weeks after she told him, the alleged victim testified that she told her mother, and then told Fuller’s wife, Amy.
The girl told Assistant Public Defender David Kaiser that she initially wanted to stay over at Fuller’s home because his house seemed more family-like than her own.
“I was scared,” she told Kaiser of why she didn’t tell anyone.
When Assistant District Attorney Phyllis A. Jin asked her to elaborate, the woman testified that she did not want to admit that she was being abused, even to herself.
“I was afraid of what my family would think of me. I didn’t want to stir things up,” she testified, her voice wavering.
Fuller is charged with two counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.
Trooper James A. Pierce testified that after Fuller was arrested in Oklahoma, he was confronted about the accusations. Although Pierce testified Fuller initially denied everything, later, Fuller admitted that some of the things were true.
Fuller, testified Pierce, admitted to about six instances of inappropriate touching, but said nothing about the alleged sex act he performed on the girl in the tent.
The county’s chief detective, Lawrence Curry, testified he was also present when Pierce questioned Fuller.
During that interview, Curry testified that he asked Fuller if substance abuse led to the sexual contact. Curry testified that Fuller said he “drank a lot and smoked marijuana.”
Jurors also heard from Amy Fuller, who testified that one time, while the alleged victim was staying in her home, she woke to find her husband not in their bed. When she checked for him after he had been gone for a while, Fuller testified she found her husband standing in the doorway of the alleged victim’s room.
She testified that Fuller told her he was just checking on the woman.
The victim testified that Fuller’s wife asked her if anything inappropriate was happening between the two of them, but she told her nothing was happening.
Jin rested the prosecution case in the afternoon. Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi is expected to reconvene testimony this morning.