BENTONVILLE -- A jury is now deliberating on whether Jorge Alcon sexually assaulted a 4-year-old girl.
Alcon, 71, a former employee of the Arkansas Department of Human Services, is charged with sexual assault, a Class B felony punishable with a prison sentence ranging from five to 20 years.
He worked for the state Department of Human Services as a program assistant and provided transportation and supervision for visitations. The girl was in foster care.
The jury heard jury instructions and closing arguments this morning and began deliberations after lunch.
The girl who is now 6 years old testified this morning. She could not identify Alcon, who sat across the courtroom at a table with his attorneys, but said Alcon took her to visit her birth mother and sister.
"What part of his body did he show you," Carrie Dobbs, deputy prosecutor, asked the the girl.
"His pee-pee," she responded.
She testified that she was in the restroom and Alcon asked her to touch him.
Valerie Goudie, one of Alcon's attorneys, questioned the child about her memory. The girl said she 'kinda' remembered what happened in the bathroom.
"Sweetie do you remember what happened or do you remember because someone told you it happened?" Goudie asked.
"A little bit of both," the girl responded.
Jurors spent hours listening to Sgt. Kris Moffit's interviews of Alcon. Moffit is a detective with Bentonville Police Department.
Alcon described the 4-year-old as the sexual aggressor and said he never touched the girl in a sexual manner.
Dobbs told jurors that the girl was 4 years old and Alcon was a grown man. "There was one aggressor in the bathroom and it's not her," she said.
Jay Martin, Alcon's other attorney, told jurors the girl had been coached.
"We believe this is a troubled child," Martin said. "We don't believe a 4-year-old is some sexual aggressor and she was trying to hurt Mr. Alcon."
Martin told jurors that he believed the girl was wronged by someone, but not his client.
"We're standing with Mr. Alcon today because he's innocent and we ask you to find him not guilty of the charge," Martin said.
Dobbs said the girl was not coached to lie and that Alcon is the only person with a motive to lie. She told jurors that Alcon preyed on and sexually assaulted the girl and Dobbs asked jurors to find Alcon guilty of the crime.
NW News on 04/12/2018