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Source: Erie Times-News, Pa.迷你倉新蒲崗July 26--A 22-year-old woman told Erie County jurors she kept secret the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of Jeffrey D. States for nearly two decades because she did not want to ruin relationships between their families and because she feared no one would believe her.A jury listened to her tearful account of the abuse and to what States had to say in his defense.They believed her.The panel deliberated a few hours late Thursday before convicting States of one count of indecent assault. Sentencing is set for Oct. 24 in Judge Shad Connelly's courtroom.Chief Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz thanked the jury."I am thrilled for the family. This has been a very difficult case," she said.States' lawyers, Peter Sala and Patricia Ambrose, declined to comment.States' defense was similar to the one he offered in a February trial in an unrelated molestation case. In that case, he told jurors he did not molest the alleged victim and had scant opportunity to do so because he was not alone with her. A jury in that case acquitted States of charges he raped an 8-year-old girl during a 2011 sleepover.In this week's trial, the victim told jurors that States, 34, molested her repeatedly in 1995 and 1996 when she went to his Millcreek Township home as a 5- and 6-year-old to be baby-sat by his mother. The prosecution was made possible by a 2007 law that expanded the statute of limitations in child-abuse cases.States, 迷你倉出租hen a high school freshman and sophomore, would take her to his basement bedroom and have indecent contact with her while asking her to play with golf balls, she said.He called it the "golf ball game," she said.States countered her testimony by telling the jury he does not remember seeing the woman in his home when she was a child.He said he only had secondhand knowledge that she was there through his sister, who sometimes cared for the girl.States said as a teen, he came and went from his home constantly to change clothes or shower or do an occasional chore. Otherwise, he said, he spent every spare minute out of his home at work or at sports or at a girlfriend's house. He said he even did his homework while working as a cashier at a convenience store. He said contrary to the woman's testimony, his bedroom at the time was not in the basement."I was very, very seldom at home," he said.Sala said reasonable doubt filled the case, especially because the woman maintained contact with States and his family after the alleged abuse occurred.Hirz asked the jury not to allow the woman's fears of being disbelieved to come true."You can be confident the defendant believes her," she said.LISA THOMPSON can be reached at 870-1802 or by e-mail. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNthompson.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Erie Times-News (Erie, Pa.) Visit the Erie Times-News (Erie, Pa.) at www.GoErie.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存倉