Testimony begins in sex abuse trial

The sexual assault trial of a Rosemont man began Tuesday with the complaining witness testifying that Christopher Cooper first began molesting her when she was 6.

Now 20, the woman testified that at the time of the alleged abuse, she was under the care of Cooper’s mother, Patricia Cooper.

Cooper, 29, has been charged with predatory criminal sexual assault and is being held without bond in Cook County Jail. Patricia Cooper, 69, has been charged with harassing a witness. Both have pleaded not guilty. Patricia Cooper will be tried at a later date.

The woman said the molestation continued over seven or eight years, culminating in sexual intercourse which resulted in her becoming pregnant in 2004, when she was 13. She testified that she subsequently had an abortion.

Under direct examination from Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Sanju Oommen, the woman admitted that when questioned by Rosemont police in 2004, she denied that Christopher Cooper had assaulted her and that she was pregnant with his child, saying she was pregnant by another boy.

She testified Patricia Cooper threatened her and told her to lie, saying if she told the truth she would be sent to a shelter. She also admitted denying the allegations again in 2006 during another investigation of the matter. Asked by Oommen why she finally told the truth in 2008, the woman said “at the time I was 17, I saw my sisters living on their own and figured I could do it myself.”

“I didn’t want to lie anymore,” said the witness, adding that in 2008 she was no longer under Patricia Cooper’s care.

Defense attorney David Sotomayor attacked the woman’s credibility during his cross examination during which she admitted she revealed the alleged sexual abuse to police in 2008 because she was “sick of being there.”

Sotomayor confronted the witness with a letter she wrote to a friend, in which she said that her boyfriend hit her, knocked her unconscious and raped her, which resulted in the pregnancy. The woman admitted writing the letter, but insisted its contents were a lie.

Rosemont detective Jeff Caldwell testified Tuesday about Christopher Cooper’s audiotaped statement witnessed by him and detective Ronald Muich on Aug. 22, 2008, following the reading of his Miranda rights.

“He said ‘I’m guilty. I did all those bad things...,’” Caldwell said. “He said he wished he had told the truth the night he was picked up.”

Prosecutors played the occasionally garbled audiotape, on which Christopher Cooper at one point puts the girl’s age at 14 or 15 before one of the officers corrected him.

Cooper stated on the tape that they “never had sex again after she got pregnant.”

“She said ‘I don’t want to take the chance,’” Cooper said on tape.

“I wish I never did it. I wish I never did any of it,” Cooper said on tape.

The officers responded in a seemingly sympathetic manner saying, “We’re going to help you. It seems like you were a victim of opportunity. No matter the outcome of this case, we’re going to get you help.”

Testimony continues Wednesday in Rolling Meadows.