Trial under way in child sex abuse case

Opening arguments began Tuesday in a sex case involving a Palatine man accused of abusing a little girl.

Baldomero Garcia, of the 1500 block of Norway Lane, is charged with criminal sexual assault and predatory sexual assault for incidents allegedly occurring in 2008.

Cook County assistant state's attorney Michael Clarke told jurors at the Rolling Meadows courthouse the evidence and words of Garcia himself would prove his guilt. Garcia admitted to Palatine police he had sexually abused the child "not one, not two, not three but four separate times," Clarke said.

He urged jurors "to hold this man responsible for the horrible crimes he did."

Assistant public defender Larry Kugler described Garcia, 29, as a young man from Guatemala who worked in a factory and spoke limited English.

He said prosecutors lacked any physical evidence to prove a crime was committed, such as DNA analysis.

And when police talked to Garcia, they failed to videotape or tape record the interview so jurors won't be able to independently evaluate his statements, Kugler noted. "They did not record a single word," he said.

The trial continues today.