Cortina Retrial Continues With Expert Medical Testimony
By Doug Wernet
LAS CRUCES — The second day of testimony in the trial of a man accused of raping a nine-year-old girl had prosecutors trying to prove guilt without any physical evidence.
Dr. Jana Williams, who treats sexually abused children,testified for the prosecution that the rape for which Jose Luis Cortina stands accused could have gone undetected in medical tests.
Williams said that although she didn’t treat Cortina’s accuser directly, if not done immediately, a rape examination may not detect signs of trauma.
Cortina’s defense team used the lack of physical evidence as grounds for saying the allegations of repeated rape by Cortina were not true.
The accusations indicate several assaults over a period of ten months. Additionally, the defense challenged the memory of the accuser as inaccurate.
But Dr. Williams testified for the prosecution that the reasona nine-year-old would beunsure of what to do after the abuse was due to a confusion over relationships.
“[The abused]are in a situation, where they are with an adult, and there’s the natural instinct to trust the adult. And if the adult tells them to do something, then they do it. So it’s very confusing that this person, that they’ve trusted gives them a warm place to sleep, and make sure they get to school would do something that’s not appropriate,” Williams testified.
