Judge denies move for mistrial in child sex trial

The attorney for a Rocky Face man accused of molesting three underage girls at his house over several years moved for a mistrial on Tuesday, saying the rules of procedure weren’t followed.

Monte Gale Salyer resigned from teaching at Dalton State College about the time he was charged with sex crimes against an underage female relative and two young girls who were members of a family that befriended him and his wife after meeting at a Ringgold church. Salyer faces two counts of rape, one count of statutory rape, three counts of child molestation, five counts of aggravated child molestation and one count of criminal attempt to commit a felony.

Dalton attorney Jim Meaney, who represents Salyer, argued for the mistrial before Whitfield County Superior Court Judge Cindy Morris, but she denied the motion. Meaney said the rules of procedure were violated when Assistant District Attorney Ben Kenemer did not give one of the alleged victims a chance to explain or deny discrepancies between her testimony on Tuesday and information she gave in a recorded interview a year ago. That interview was with a female professional trained in questioning suspected child sex victims. Meaney objected to the video interview being shown to the jury, but Morris denied his objection.

“The bell can’t be un-rung,” Meaney said. “We are moving for a mistrial.”

The girl, now 17, testified in court that Salyer raped and molested her in multiple ways when she visited him at his house when she was between 8 and 13, saying she didn’t remember her exact age. In the earlier interview she said the events happened when she was “10 or 11.” There were at least 15 other “inconsistencies” besides that one relating to how the molestation happened, Kenemer said. He said he introduced the video after her testimony to provide answers for the jury that the girl wasn’t able to give on the witness stand.

Kenemer told jury members when the trial opened on Monday to expect some child witnesses to not be able to remember statements they made earlier and offered that the recorded interviews could help complete their testimony.

Meaney argued the girl wasn’t given a chance to explain why her statements were inconsistent, as required under the law, but Morris ruled she was. Meaney declined to cross examine the girl.

The jury of three men and nine women heard opening statements on Monday followed by a nearly full day of testimony from several witnesses for the state on Tuesday.

Both attorneys said they expect to finish presenting evidence today and will turn the case over to the jury by Thursday.

Child says touched ‘in a very bad place’

Kenemer said the allegations against Salyer came to light after a then-8-year-old relative told her mother what happened.

The girl, now 9, testified she was in court because Salyer touched her “in a very bad place.” She said she was lying on a couch or bed at Salyer’s house in January 2012 playing on an iPad when Salyer came in, shut the door and came over and placed part of his hand in her vagina.

Kenemer played for the jury a recorded interview of the girl speaking to the same trained professional the 17-year-old spoke to. The younger girl said in the interview there were other earlier incidents that made her uncomfortable including Salyer holding her in a way that his hands touched part of her private area while they were in a hot tub together with at least one other family member and Salyer rubbing her belly in a way in which his hand sometimes went “too far” down. The girl talked about when he touched her between the legs in the interview, too, and she said he stopped when she told him to stop.

The girl’s mother, Amanda Salyer, testified she learned about the alleged molestation when she, her mother and her other two daughters were eating at a pizza restaurant in Dalton. She said she became concerned when she went to check on something while her daughter was in the bathroom there, and she noticed an odor that made her think the girl might have a yeast infection, and she saw that the area was red.

Amanda Salyer said she asked her daughter if anyone had touched her inappropriately, and the daughter at first shook her head in denial. As they talked more and she let her daughter know they could get help if something had happened, the girl gave the story about Monte Salyer, began crying and begged not to have to see him again, Amanda Salyer said.

Amanda Salyer said she didn’t press her daughter for explicit details of what happened because it seemed to upset her.

“I felt if she wanted to tell me, she would,” Amanda Salyer said.

Amanda Salyer told the girl’s father and took her to Hamilton Medical Center for a sexual assault examination. A Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office deputy spoke with Amanda Salyer and the girl’s grandmother while they were at the hospital. The next day, the girl went for an interview at The GreenHouse, a place in Dalton where suspected child sex victims go to talk one-on-one with professionals trained in how to take their statements.

The jury also heard testimony from the alleged victim’s father and maternal grandmother, and Deborah Salyer — the defendant’s wife — took the stand after she was subpoenaed to appear in court. Deborah Salyer denied she ever made statements to a law enforcement officer investigating the case that she was concerned about anything inappropriate happening between her husband and the alleged victims. She also said the bed or couch in which the young relative said she was molested wasn’t in the room the alleged victim said she was in when the alleged crime supposedly happened.

Deborah Salyer said it was common for the girl to go in the computer room — the room where the girl said Monte Salyer touched her inappropriately — and lock the door because she wanted to be able to play on the iPad by herself without having to share with her sisters. Deborah Salyer said that while she was there all day when the girl was supposedly molested, she was often gone to work or busy with cooking and other chores while the other alleged victims were visiting.

Teen tells of multiple molestations

The 17-year-old testified she couldn’t remember many of the details of when and how she was molested, but she does know Monte Salyer violated her on several occasions while she and one or more of her siblings visited him at his house in Rocky Face. She said she, her older sister and two brothers would visit the Salyers frequently. Sometimes it was all four of them with their mother, sometimes just the kids, and sometimes only two of the kids, she said.

She testified that the kinds of molestation included at least one incident in which he asked her to wash his crotch while they showered together after getting out of the swimming pool, many times — perhaps more than 50 — when he placed part of his hand inside her vagina, at least once when he performed oral sex on her, once when he raped her, and at least once when he made her change into her bathing suit in front of him instead of allowing her to go in the bathroom as she requested. Some of her statements about the number of times she was raped and other details were different in her sworn testimony than in her GreenHouse interview.

The 17-year-old testified that she didn’t say “no” or resist when he would do these things, mostly because she was scared.

“I think I tried to move (away), but I mean, I didn’t really know what was going on,” she said.

Kenemer asked her how she felt during the rape.

“It was like, really awkward,” she said, adding it hurt “a little bit.”

“You wanted it to stop?” Kenemer asked.

“Yeah.”

The girl said the molestation stopped after she moved out of her mother’s house and began living with her birth father. Her father no longer took her to visit the Salyers, she said.

The third alleged victim, the now 17-year-old’s older sister, hasn’t yet testified.

Other angles

Deborah Salyer said she and her husband would sometimes sleep with the children in the same room and would put down sleeping bags and blankets and all sleep together in the living room or would add pallets for the kids and sleep together in their bedroom.

She also testified she once heard “a sound that sounded strange” when at least one of the girls was in the bedroom with them, but when she asked her husband about it, he said he was just massaging one of the girls’ sinuses. Deborah Salyer said her husband was interested in health topics and had learned ways to alleviate sinus issues with the technique. She denied the noises sounded as if they were associated with any type of sexual activity.

The mother of the two older alleged victims said she wasn’t suspicious at the time that Salyer was molesting her daughters. She said a friend told her one of the girls’ brothers said he saw Salyer kissing one of the girls on the mouth.

“But when I approached the children, they didn’t seem to have an attitude like there was something wrong,” she said.

The mother testified she thought it was Monte Salyer who told her the kiss wasn’t a sexual kiss, and the statement eased any concerns she had.

The family was friends with the Salyers for several years after the mother and the girl’s father were divorced, she said, and she sometimes talked with Deborah Salyer about concerns her ex-husband wasn’t teaching the kids the Seventh-day Adventist doctrine both she and the Salyers espoused. Monte Salyer helped the family some financially at times, including helping pay some of the tuition costs for private schools, she said.

She said her daughters first told her about the molestation early last year around the same time or shortly after the 8-year-old girl came forward with her statement.

“Did (your daughters) tell you they had been contacted by Amanda Salyer?” Meaney asked her.

“Yes,” she said. “They did.”

He did not ask her questions about whether or how they knew Amanda Salyer.

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Judge denies move for mistrial in child sex trial

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