Published: August 19, 2006 04:40 pm            

New Albany man found guilty of child molestation

Now faces up to 108 years in prison

With tears rolling down her face, Laura Rawlings waved her fists in the air as the sound of her voice saying “Yes!” pierced the silence in a Floyd County courtroom Friday afternoon.

A jury had just convicted her 8-year-old daughter’s father — 42-year-old James Absher — on three counts of child molestation, two Class A Felonies and one Class C, for having sexual intercourse with the little girl two years ago in her New Albany home.

“I am the happiest person on earth,” she said as the jury filed out of the courtroom. “This is the best day of my life. Now I know there is no chance this will ever happen to anybody else.”

During the first day of testimony, Rawlings testified that she discovered Absher molesting their then 5-year-old daughter in a home along the 300 block of West Seventh Street the morning of May 27, 2004.

According to an affidavit filed by the Floyd County Prosecutor’s Office, Rawlings told police she entered a bedroom and found Absher straddling the little girl with his pants down and genitals exposed. The girl’s pants and underwear were also lowered and he was fondling her, the affidavit said.

When Rawlings confronted Absher, he ran from the house and was later found and arrested on Ind. 111 in New Albany wearing only a pair of jeans.

Detective Sherri Knight played a taped interview for the jury she conducted with the girl shortly after the alleged incident where she said her “Daddy James” had sexual intercourse with her before her mother walked into the room and told him to “get out of her house.”

But when brought to the stand to testify Thursday, the girl said Absher touched her in a “bad way” but would only shrug her shoulders and look to the floor when Deputy Prosecutor Steve Owen asked her to recount specifics about the alleged molestation. Despite that, Owen said it was her testimony that likely swung the jury to its guilty verdict.

“To me, that was the most emotional piece of evidence,” he said outside the courtroom after the verdict was read. “She didn’t say much (when she took the stand) but what she did say spoke volumes.

“You knew something happened to her and she didn’t want to talk about it. That was a compelling piece of evidence that was hard for the jury to ignore.”

Other evidence included DNA in the form of saliva found inside the girl’s underwear. A DNA expert called by the prosecution said “there was a one in a million chance” that the discovered DNA did not belong to Absher, Owen said during his closing statement.

Absher’s defense team, public defenders Lisa Glickfield-Back and William Eastridge, said they didn’t know for sure whether or not they would appeal the conviction, but said “it’s very likely.”

“We think there are appealable issues,” Eastridge said. “Based on the evidence we’ve seen, (the verdict) is not a surprise, but of course we’re disappointed.”

Detective Knight said she was “pleased” with the conviction and it was “rewarding to see your efforts not be in vain.”

Chief of Detectives Captain Keith Whitlow said this case was one of the first tried since the implementation of a Crimes Against Children Unit in the detectives division in 2004. Knight has more than a 100 hours of training in investigating these sensitive crimes.

“(This conviction) shows the importance of specialization and spending adequate time conducting an investigation to get cases like this one prosecuted.”

Absher will be sentenced Sept. 18. He faces a maximum of 108 years in prison.

        

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