Clinging to her beloved Minnie Mouse doll, a 7-year-old girl told a jury Wednesday that the husband of her West Chicago day-care provider molested her almost two years ago.
Calling the man "Mr. Ron," the girl provided specific details about being molested. Still, she couldn't recognize the 60-year-old man when asked to point him out in the courtroom.
Her testimony came on the first day of Ronald G. Lesniak's trial on aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges.
He is claiming that brain surgery has left him without a sex drive. But prosecutors accused Lesniak of repeatedly kissing and fondling the child, then 5, over her clothing while she sat on his lap watching sing-along videos in December 2002.
At the time, the girl and another sibling were among a half dozen children attending "Hope's Windmill Kids," a day care Lesniak's wife operated out of their home at 0N026 McDonald Ave.
The other children weren't allowed to bother Ronald Lesniak when he'd return home from work. But, the girl said he often let her sit on his lap "because he said I was special."
The child's mother testified her daughter the next morning acted as if something was bothering her. The girl then told her mother the allegations.
"She was brave enough to tell her mom her secret," prosecutor Ann Celine O'Hallaren said. "In Illinois, that secret has a name. It's called aggravated criminal sexual abuse."
She said Lesniak, in a taped interview, confessed to police that he inappropriately touched the girl and said it "excited him."
But defense attorney John Westra offered an unusual defense. He said Lesniak did not have a motive to molest the girl. Lesniak had two brain surgeries some 30 years ago to control a seizure disorder and, as a side effect, lacks a sex drive.
http://www.dailyherald.com/search/main_story.asp?intid=38232314
Calling the man "Mr. Ron," the girl provided specific details about being molested. Still, she couldn't recognize the 60-year-old man when asked to point him out in the courtroom.
Her testimony came on the first day of Ronald G. Lesniak's trial on aggravated criminal sexual abuse charges.
He is claiming that brain surgery has left him without a sex drive. But prosecutors accused Lesniak of repeatedly kissing and fondling the child, then 5, over her clothing while she sat on his lap watching sing-along videos in December 2002.
At the time, the girl and another sibling were among a half dozen children attending "Hope's Windmill Kids," a day care Lesniak's wife operated out of their home at 0N026 McDonald Ave.
The other children weren't allowed to bother Ronald Lesniak when he'd return home from work. But, the girl said he often let her sit on his lap "because he said I was special."
The child's mother testified her daughter the next morning acted as if something was bothering her. The girl then told her mother the allegations.
"She was brave enough to tell her mom her secret," prosecutor Ann Celine O'Hallaren said. "In Illinois, that secret has a name. It's called aggravated criminal sexual abuse."
She said Lesniak, in a taped interview, confessed to police that he inappropriately touched the girl and said it "excited him."
But defense attorney John Westra offered an unusual defense. He said Lesniak did not have a motive to molest the girl. Lesniak had two brain surgeries some 30 years ago to control a seizure disorder and, as a side effect, lacks a sex drive.
http://www.dailyherald.com/search/main_story.asp?intid=38232314
