Jury hear's girl's story in child molestation case

4/30/2008
The 5-year-old girl in the Samuel Rochelle II child molestation case initially told Salina police investigator Shawn Moreland that no one had touched her inappropriately or had told her to touch him.

But after being asked specifically about what she told her mother regarding Rochelle, the girl repeated her allegation.

“Sam put his thing in my mouth,” the girl said in a videotaped interview with Moreland that was shown Wednesday in Saline County District Court.

Rochelle, 25, is being tried on two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated indecent liberties and aggravated indecent solicitation of a child under the age of 14. The trial began Tuesday and resumes at 9 a.m. today in Saline County District Court.

Rochelle is accused of molesting the girl on March 31, 2007, as he cared for the girl and her older sister while their mother shopped with Rochelle’s wife.

Reporter Sharon Montague can be reached at 822-1411 or by e-mail at smontague@salina.com.

©Salina Journal