{"id":1317927,"date":"2020-01-27T17:40:42","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T00:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=993027"},"modified":"2020-01-27T17:40:42","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T00:40:42","slug":"victims-dna-not-present-on-evidence-in-garfield-county-sexual-assault-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/victims-dna-not-present-on-evidence-in-garfield-county-sexual-assault-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Victim\u2019s DNA not present on evidence in Garfield County sexual assault trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"817\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/09\/GettyImages-854300870.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/09\/GettyImages-854300870.jpg 817w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/09\/GettyImages-854300870-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/09\/GettyImages-854300870-768x401.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 817px) 100vw, 817px\"><figcaption><strong>Judge&#8217;s gavel<\/strong><br \/><em>Getty<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>After multiple tests, investigators determined an alleged victim\u2019s DNA was not present on an object that prosecutors say William Korn used to assault his stepdaughter in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Korn is charged with sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, a class 3 felony, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.<\/p>\n<p>During the second day of trial, the jury heard testimony from Colorado Bureau of Investigations analyst Denise Vensel, who worked on analyzing the object.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of several months, Vensel conducted several tests, and began using a STRMix, relatively new software that allows forensic investigators to test the probability that a person\u2019s DNA is present in a mix of multiple people\u2019s cells in one sample.<\/p>\n<p>That analysis, conducted throughout 2019, determined there was very low probability that the girl\u2019s DNA was on the object. A Jan. 21, 2020, further confirmed that the girl\u2019s DNA was not on the object.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of the girl\u2019s DNA can\u2019t prove that the object touched the girl, Vensel testified, but it also can\u2019t prove that the girl was never touched with the object.<\/p>\n<p>DNA could have been degraded from the object due to heat, or if the object was used by other people or washed, Vensel said.<\/p>\n<p>The jury also viewed the video of a 2017 interview with the alleged victim 8 months after the alleged incident conducted by RiverBridge, a victim advocacy organization.<\/p>\n<p>In it, the girl said that her stepfather supplied her with an alcoholic beverage, took her into his room, and used an object to sexually abuse her.<\/p>\n<p>The defense attorneys claim the alleged assault never happened, and that the allegations are filled with inconsistencies.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cGenerally, in an interview, children do not provide all the detail\u201d of an assault, Bridget Derkash, formerly of RiverBridge, told the jury.<\/p>\n<p>But while further interviews may provide more detail, RiverBridge doesn\u2019t conduct more than one interview with a child for a single incident to avoid the trauma of revisiting memories of the assault.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"mailto:tphippen@postindependent.com\">tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/victims-dna-not-present-on-evidence-in-garfield-county-sexual-assault-trial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Judge&#8217;s gavelGetty After multiple tests, investigators determined an alleged victim\u2019s DNA was not present on an object that prosecutors say William Korn used to assault his stepdaughter in 2016. Korn is charged with sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, a class 3 felony, and contributing to the delinquency [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 03:39:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}