Sex abuse trial begins

PALMER — The trail of a Kenai man charged with the sexual abuse of two young girls began Friday in Palmer.

Presented in court Friday were two very different accounts of what happened between Lyn Roger Christian, 52, and two girls in the summer of 2008 to a Palmer jury at the start of his trial on charges of sexual abuse of a minor and indecent exposure.

“This is a case about a man sexually assaulting two young girls,” said prosecutor Trina Sears. “Those girls were between 7 and 10 years old.”

She said Sears got to know the first girl he abused when he started doing some work in Mat-Su and he and her mother happened to be working in the same building. They started dating. The relationship lasted less than a year and he would stay over when he was in town.

That’s when the abuse started, and it grew to, in Sears’ words, include “basically all types of sexual acts with this young girl.”

One night the girl had a friend spending the night. They were watching the movie “27 Dresses” when Christian came into the room and lay down in the bed they were in. He had the girl’s friend touch him and when she realized what she was touching she ran and hid in a bathroom.

When the relationship with the girl’s mother ended, so did the abuse. But the girl wound up in therapy and a therapist made the initial report on the abuse. That was March 2011.

Police recorded a phone call between Christian and the girl’s mother in which he admitted to various sexual acts, but said that the girl instigated everything.

“She called every shot. Absolutely every shot. I never forced anything on her,” Sears told the jury, quoting the transcript of that call.

“This really is a case about the defendant taking advantage sexually of two young girls who did not want it,” Sears told the jury.

On the other side, Christian’s attorney, Bruce Brown, told jurors that “this case is not going to be a pleasant case for you to listen to.”

But he urged them to pay attention, especially to the details.

“Details are extremely important,” he said.

First of all, he noted, was that the relationship, while it stretched over most of a year, if you take into account that he would only visit his girlfriend on the weekends, it was really only 48 or 50 days long.

Brown told jurors that in her first interview with investigators, the girlfriend’s daughter said Christian never did anything inappropriate with her.

“He was very nice,” Brown said, quoting her statements.

A year later she went in for a second interview.

“Only now Roger’s very, very mean. Beats her with a belt,” Brown said.

He said the girl was prone to “wild exaggerations” and pointed out that the second report came on the heels of a report from her friend, the one who had hid in the bathroom.

“(She) was very aware of her mom’s sexual activity,” Brown said, noting that the girl seemed to know where the pornography and sexual items were in the house.

As for the taped conversation, Brown said jurors should listen closely. When his client described the acts as “minor oral,” what is minor oral? Couldn’t that just be kissing?

“What you’re not going to hear in those tapes is Roger using the word ‘sex,’” Brown said.

Which, legally, is an important distinction, the difference between serious and not-as-serious criminal charges. But, Brown said, he believes his client is innocent.

“The evidence, we don’t think, is going to show any impropriety,” Brown said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.