{"id":1318007,"date":"2020-01-31T20:14:41","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T03:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=993199"},"modified":"2020-01-31T20:14:41","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T03:14:41","slug":"jury-acquits-man-of-assaulting-stepdaughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/jury-acquits-man-of-assaulting-stepdaughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury acquits man of assaulting stepdaughter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Judge’s gavel<\/strong>
Getty<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A jury in Glenwood Springs on Friday declared William Korn, 57, not guilty of sexually assaulting his stepdaughter in 2016.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the eight-day trial, prosecutors in the Ninth District Attorney\u2019s Office made the case that Korn got the 13-year-old girl drunk before using an object to assault her at his Parachute home on Dec. 12, 2016.<\/p>\n

Korn did not testify during the trial.<\/p>\n

Korn was visibly relieved as Judge John Neiley read the verdict Friday night, which the jury reached unanimously after more than 7 hours of deliberation. He embraced his public defenders, Elise Myer and Alex Haynes.<\/p>\n

Korn was charged with sexual assault on a child by someone in a position of trust, a class 3 felony punishable by four to 12 years in prison, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor for allegedly supplying alcohol.<\/p>\n

After Neiley told Korn he was free, he made a statement that the Parachute Police detective and supervisory witness in the trial should be charged with perjury.<\/p>\n

Neiley said he didn\u2019t make charging decisions, and that he would not tolerate statements like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe allegations in this case are a story,\u201d public defender Alex Haynes said in closing arguments. \u201cA story filled with inconsistencies, inconsistencies filled with impossibilities. It\u2019s inconsistent, and impossible, because it didn\u2019t happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the lack of the girl\u2019s DNA on the object and certain changes to the story over the course of the investigation, deputy district attorney Sarah Nordgaard said that the \u201ccore details\u201d of the alleged victim\u2019s story of the assault remained the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendant now tries to attack the victim\u2019s credibility. He wants to make sure you don\u2019t listen to her,\u201d Nordgaard said.<\/p>\n

Throughout the girl\u2019s three on-the-record statements \u2014 \u00ad\u00ad\u00adthe first at a forensic interview 8 months after the alleged incident, the second at a review hearing March 2019 and the third as a witness during this trial \u2014 the important details were the same.<\/p>\n

Korn allegedly stopped off in Rifle to purchase alcohol, and gave it to the girl on the drive to Parachute, where he took her to his bedroom, gave a \u201csex talk\u201d and then supposedly touched her sexually with an object, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

But the defense pointed out what they saw as inconsistencies in the girl\u2019s story, and claimed that they make the girl\u2019s testimony unbelievable.<\/p>\n

There was confusion around the receipt from the liquor store, Nordgaard said in closings.<\/p>\n

The initial report on finding that receipt said the purchase happened around 1:30 p.m. \u2014 earlier than the prosecution\u2019s timeline.<\/p>\n

The investigator clarified his testimony later in the trial that the time in his report was a typographical error.<\/p>\n

The time on the receipt was the time it was printed \u2014 not the time of purchase, Nordgaard said, and the date was enough to corroborate the girl\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

Both the prosecution and the defense attorneys declined to comment on the verdict.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge’s gavelGetty A jury in Glenwood Springs on Friday declared William Korn, 57, not guilty of sexually assaulting his stepdaughter in 2016. Over the course of the eight-day trial, prosecutors in the Ninth District Attorney\u2019s Office made the case that Korn got the 13-year-old girl drunk before using an object to assault her at his […]<\/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-1318007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 02:56:00","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\/1318007","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=1318007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}