INDIO, Calif. -- Jurors in the trial of an ex-police officer accused of repeatedly raping an underage relative for a decade and molesting a girl who was a member of a police ride-along program completed their first day of deliberations Thursday without reaching a verdict.
Dennis Paul Decker, a 37-year-old former Desert Hot Springs police officer, is charged with molesting the now-18-year-old relative as well as another teen for several months in 2005-06 while she was taking part in the department's Explorers program, which he founded and operated.
Decker, who is being held at the Indio Jail in lieu of $2 million bail, could face life in prison if convicted of the 20 counts against him, including rape, aggravated sexual assault on a child and lewd acts with a child.
Jurors will resume deliberating at 9 a.m. Monday. They are also expected to listen to some recorded audio from the trial, according to Decker's attorney, John Patrick Dolan.
Dolan said the request for the audio came late Thursday, and jurors did not specify what audio they wanted to hear.
While deliberating Thursday, the jury requested to have testimony read back to them from the relative who claims she was raped, Dolan said. He said the jury also requested more information on instructions for certain counts against Decker.
During Wednesday's closing arguments, Dolan told jurors they cannot convict Decker if they have a reasonable doubt about his guilt, and he insisted there was plenty of doubt.
"All you have are her words," Dolan told the jury, referring to the young relative's allegations.
He said the girl did not accuse Decker of anything until after June 2004, when Decker and the girl's mother found love letters she had written to another girl and forbade her from seeing the girl again. Dolan also insisted that prosecutors had presented no evidence proving that Decker molested the girl for a decade.
"Don't you wonder why we don't have records from her doctor?" Dolan asked.
The defense attorney derided the search that investigators conducted in Marina del Rey, where Decker allegedly last raped the girl. He said investigators never checked for semen on the sheets in Decker's residence or looked for condoms.
"How could the D.A. not look for a condom when there's a suggestion (by prosecutors) that a condom was used in this case?" Dolan asked.
Dolan also questioned the allegations raised by the other alleged victim, a now-15-year-old former Explorer who claims Decker touched her inappropriately and sent her sexually suggestive e-mails. He said she was not a credible witness because she testified she became a member of the program in fall of 2005, even though an application filled out by the girl showed that Decker did not approve her admission until March 2006.
He also insisted that it was the girl who initiated the e-mails, not Decker.
During her closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Victoria Cameron showed jurors a photo of the young relative at the age of 7, clutching a baby doll.
"Imagine what it was like for this little girl to be victimized over and over again. ... She had no control," Cameron said. "Imagine her terror, the pain that she felt when the man that was supposed to love her ... used her as a sex toy."
The years of abuse caused severe psychological consequences for the girl, who began cutting herself and abusing marijuana and alcohol, the prosecutor said.
"She's strong. She survived ... but at what cost?" Cameron said. "He (Decker) got what he wanted -- his own personal sex toy ..."
She said Decker incriminated himself during a taped conversation with the relative just prior to his September 2006 arrest, when she called him at the behest of investigators and falsely told him she was pregnant. Decker responded by telling her there were two things in play --"You were on your period ... and also I used a thing."
"The 'thing' was not a credit card," Cameron told the jury, referencing the defendant's testimony that he had been referring to a credit card he used to purchase birth control for the girl. Decker had also contended he was talking in code because he was at a police training class at the time.
The defense's contention that the family member wanted revenge on Decker because he forbade her from living a lesbian lifestyle was "ridiculous" because she was about to turn 18 and move out when the allegations came to light, Cameron said.
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