Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 19, 1995 TAG: 9507190043
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Myron J. "Mike" Macomber, 45, was charged last fall with 15 charges of sodomy, aggravated sexual battery, inanimate-object sexual penetration and taking indecent liberties with a girl under the age of 13.
During a bench trial in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Tuesday, Macomber's attorney argued that there was not enough evidence to convict his client on all charges, possibly not on any.
Judge Ray Grubbs reduced six charges of taking indecent liberties to three and granted a motion by the state to amend the inanimate-penetration charges to attempted penetration. He did not rule on whether the remaining charges would stand, but likely will make a decision on the entire case Aug. 4 after further reviewing the indictments and motions.
In presenting Macomber's defense, his attorney, David Mullins, characterized the girl - now 9 - as "a young girl who had a very healthy interest in things sexual," often pulling the man's pants down and laughing at his reaction. While "there were some games of a light-hearted nature," they were not "sinister," Mullins said.
Mullins also contended the charges Macomber faces are the result of the girl's remembering "a combination of other experiences that she had had," and that she may be accusing Macomber of doing things to her that she only saw in sexually explicit videos the man owned and that she watched.
But the girl testified that Macomber had sexually assaulted her in a variety of ways, often in a basement room of his house, his "getaway room" where he kept his videos and sex toys. She said she was touched in her private areas and made to commit sodomy on Macomber, repeating the acts she and the man had seen in the videos he had shown her.
The child's mother testified that she noticed her daughter becoming aggressive and angry at times during this period.
Skip Schwab, assistant commonwealth's attorney, argued that while the girl may not be able to recite specific dates of the alleged assaults, the dates in the indictments - between April and September of last year - were approximate based on when she came forward after seeing a school program about good and bad touches.
At the time of Macomber's arrest, police credited a school play warning children about sexual abuse for prompting the girl to report the allegations. "Hugs and Kisses," a play presented by the Child Abuse Prevention Coalition, educates children on how to identify sexual abuse and tells them what to do if they are being abused.
The girl said she saw the play while attending a Christiansburg-area school, but did not report the abuse because she was scared. When she saw the play the following year at another school, she came forward.
"I thought that I was old enough and brave enough to tell and not to be afraid," the girl told Grubbs.
by CNB