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POWHATAN COUNTY, Va. — The trial for a former Powhatan sports facility director accused accused of sexually abusing six girls began Tuesday and featured testimony from three of his alleged victims.
Joseph Edward Parker faces 18 charges, including multiple counts of aggravated sexual battery and taking indecent liberties with a child in his custody. The charges involve six girls between the ages of 9 and 13 who attended the Fast Feet Sports Academy, which Parker founded in 2017.
After jury selections took up the morning, the prosecution and defense presented their opening arguments and explained what they felt jurors would find from the evidence presented in trial.
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Timothy Dustan said the testimony from the girls would testify how someone who was important to them and they called "Coach Joe" abused them. He said at the end of the testimony he would asked jurors to find Parker "guilty".
Parker's defense attorney, Ed Riley, said Parker's academy was a busy, active place that saw contact between students and coaches. Riley said that Parker was not denying the he hugged, poked, or tickled some students, but added that there was no ill intent beyond the actions and the prosecution could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it rose to the level of the criminal actions he's accused of.
Prosecution Witnesses
First Alleged Victim and Parents
A total of eight witnesses were called for the prosecution Tuesday, including three of the alleged victims. All three testified via a video conference call from another room in the courthouse.
The other five witnesses were parents of the girls.
The first alleged victim said Parker would put his hand on her butt, over her clothes, multiple times a day and would then slid it off. She said this made her feel "uncomfortable" and that no other coach touched her like that.
She said did not tell anyone about what was happening, but said she would not go to Fast Feet on some days because she did not want to encounter Parker.
The girl's mother said her daughter had anxiety and increased stress during the time she was at Fast Feet and that changed when they found out Parker had been arrested. She said she then took her daughter to a Child Advocacy Center (CAC) for a forensic interview.
The girl's father also testified that one time when he be came to pick his kids up, he saw Parker "straddling" his daughter and it looked like he was tickling her which made him furious.
The dad said he told a worker at the front desk about how he felt it was inappropriate. He said did not talk to Parker about it until a week or two later when the family came back from vacation and that Parker promised it would not happen again.
Second Alleged Victim and Parents
The second alleged victim described how Parker would "force" students to sit on his lap at the front desk, including her. She said Parker did this to her more than once and would put his hand under her clothes (but over top of her underwear) and touched her chest and "down below my stomach".
When asked by Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Alice Sheridan if that was an OK place for someone to touch, the girl said "No, ma'am".
The girl said she had not seen this happen to anyone else and only told some of the other girls at Fast Feet. She said some of them decided to go tell one of the other coaches at the academy what had happened, after which the girl said she stopped going there.
The girl's mother said she had no initial safety concerns with the academy when enrolling her daughter there and reacted with "shock" when she heard about the arrest. She said she took her daughter to a CAC for a forensic interview as well.
On cross examination, Riley asked the girl about the interview and said she told the interviewer that Parker did not touch her in the chest area, something she was now testifying in court did happen.
The girl said she did not remember being asked those questions.
Third Alleged Victim and her Parents
The third alleged victim recalled a similar account to the second girl and said Parker had her sit on his lap at the front desk and he put his hand under her clothes (but over the underwear) and on her chest and "between her legs".
She said it happened twice and made her feel "scared" and that she saw it happen to two other girls at the academy, including the second girl. But, she said she never talked to any of the other girls or anyone about what happened.
One of her mother's said she did not know what had happened to her daughter until news broke of Parker's arrest. The mom said during the time her daughter was at Fast Feet, she started to refuse to sleep by herself or with the lights off. She said after Parker was arrested, she took her daughter for a forensic interview at a CAC.
During cross examination of the girl, Riley pointed out the girl had discipline issues at the academy and had been in trouble for lying.
He asked her about her first CAC interview and said she told interviewers that nothing had happened. When pressed on this, the girl said she did not remember.
Riley also asked the girl if Parker asked her to keep a secret, to which she answered "yes". When Riley said she told the CAC interviewer "no" to that question, the girl denied saying that.
The girl also denied talking to anyone else about what happened since Parker was arrested and denied she had talked to other alleged victims from the academy about what to say in the trial.
Day Two Expectations
The trial is scheduled for two days, but there were several delays during Tuesday's witness testimony because of technology issues with the witnesses testifying by video.
The prosecution and defense are expected to wrap up their cases tomorrow and hand the trial over to the 12-person jury.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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