Woman goes back on prior statements during testimony

Tiffany Horak took the witness stand in her husband's child molestation trial Thursday and contradicted her previous statements about his activities.

Even the 27-year-old woman's contradictions had contradictions, as Horak began her testimony saying she could not remember certain things and ended with her saying they never occurred.

Carl Horak, 26, is facing as many as 120 years in prison if convicted of multiple counts of the predatory sexual assault of an 8-year-old child.

Tiffany Horak was facing similar charges when she pleaded guilty to a single count in July and was sentenced 14 years in prison.

She agreed to provide truthful testimony against her husband and gave prosecutors a handwritten statement and signed a typed summary of the testimony she could provide.

In both documents, Tiffany Horak describes two incidents in which her husband molested the girl and recounts statements he made about wanting to have sex with children.

The Horaks, of Wauconda, have been accused of repeatedly molesting the child between fall 2007 and January 2008, when they were arrested.

But Tiffany Horak has been vacillating on the subject of testifying since about a month after her guilty plea, and is said to have changed her mind on the subject multiple times this week.

Thursday morning, Circuit Judge Fred Foreman denied a prosecutor's request to give Tiffany Horak immunity from further prosecution based on what she would say in her testimony.

Foreman said she was bound to testify truthfully because of the plea agreement and warned her she would be held in contempt if she refused and could be charged with perjury if she lied.

Earlier in the week, Foreman also denied Tiffany Horak's request for Fifth Amendment protection during her testimony.

When Assistant State's Attorney Ari Fisz began questioning her about the two statements she had authorized, Tiffany Horak responded repeatedly that she could not remember the events detailed in them.

"I have done a lot of drugs over the time," she said at one point. "I seem to lose my memory."

She admitted having contact with several members of her husband's family since she has been back in Lake County for the trial, but said they never discussed her husband's case.

During cross-examination by defense attorney Robert Ritacca, Tiffany Horak stated flatly that the statements were false including the events and statements she told Fisz she could not remember.

She said she and another inmate at the county jail had crafted her handwritten statement and modeled it after reports of what the victim told police had happened to her.

The typed summary of her potential testimony was also false, she said, although she has never raised that issue in any of her prior attempts to avoid testimony.

Tiffany Horak began to cry so hard in response to Fisz's final question that she had to be excused from the courtroom briefly to compose herself.

"I just want to ask you one more thing," he said. "Do you think you have done (the victim) any good by your performance here today?"

Fisz declined to comment after her testimony when asked if he intends to charge her with perjury.