Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Jury began deliberating in Hepple trial Tuesday

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

A jury was deliberating the case of a former Valencia County couple Tuesday on charges that they abused two of their six children by tying them up for periods of time and withholding food from them.

Matthew Hepple, 39, and his wife, 33-year-old Sarah Burton-Hepple, are charged with two counts of kidnapping, two counts of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, one count of conspiracy to commit child abuse and four counts of child abuse.

District Judge John Pope had dismissed two other counts of child abuse last week saying that lice found in the children's hair did not constitute negligent child abuse.

The week-long trial was in the hands of a jury of seven women and five men, who broke on Tuesday afternoon and were to return Wednesday to continue deliberation.

After prosecutors rested their case last week, the defense began theirs on Monday morning. Their first witness, Michelle Toller, who testified last week for the prosecution, took the stand once again and was questioned about a birthday party at her home she had told the jury about earlier on in the trial.

Toller had previously testified that the two victims in the case, Rikki and Joseph Burton, had not been allowed to eat birthday cake at the party or play games with the other children. But when shown a videotape of the party in court Monday morning, Rikki Burton is seen standing up holding a plate and apparently eating something.

When asked by Burton-Hepple's defense attorney, Jack Jacks, about what the girl was eating, Toller said she didn't know if it was birthday cake, and that there was "a lot of other food there. I can't say if it was cake on the plate."

Under cross-examination by the district attorney's office, Toller was shown another video of the same party, in which both Rikki and her younger brother, the other alleged victim, were holding babies while the other children were playing a game. Toller testified that it looked as if Rikki was helping the other kids play the game.

The defense's second witness, Betsy Revard, the children's therapist, testified that both children were diagnosed with having reactive attachment disorder. She told the jury that the disorder is a result of pathological parental care. She said the disorder is caused by poor parental care as well as abuse or neglect between the ages of birth and 5 years old.

Revard testified that Rikki, now 14-years-old, exhibited symptoms of the disorder including an inability to be affectionate, some abnormal eating patterns, a minimal tendency of triangulation of adults, reporting false allegations of abuse and a minimal tendency of impulse control issues.

She said Joseph's symptoms include a superficial tendency to be engaging and charming, destruction of material things, some aggression with peers, lying about the obvious, poor peer relations and reporting false allegations.

Revard said Joseph is currently in a residential treatment center in Washington State. "His behaviors had escalated where he was unsafe to himself and to others," she said.

"He became more aggressive and was refusing all adult direction," Revard said of Joseph's condition. She said he exhibited the behaviors more frequently and was ultimately suspended from school.

The witness said under cross-examination that the children were also diagnosed with having posttraumatic stress disorder, which is caused by a traumatic event or a series of traumatic events. Revard testified that Rikki "absolutely" did not want any further contact with her parents, while Joseph said he would, "with a lot of police around."

Revard said after Rikki was taken into state custody last year, she was doing well in school, elected as a member of the school's student council and had good grades.

Marvin Paul, a former social worker with the Children, Youth and Families Department in Torrance County, testified that he first met with the Hepple family in June 2007 when asked by Valencia County CYFD officials to initiate an investigation.

He said the Hepples were very cooperative and allowed them to talk to the children.

Paul said when he spoke with Joseph he said that his sister Rikki had cut his wrists. The witness told the jury that the boy told him he had felt safe and that he was getting plenty of food.

"He (Joseph) basically said he was scared of his sister," Paul said. "He said that she told him if he told, she would cut him again."

Paul testified that he did notice that he was acting "distant" to his parents, but that he didn't say he was scared of them. He also said that he didn't see any signs of abuse to the boy or to any of the other Hepple children.

When questioned by Assistant District Attorney Judith Reed, Paul said when he made a second visit to the Hepple home, about a week later; he noticed that the house was cluttered with trash. He also said noticed dirty diapers on the porch and that the children didn't have clean clothes.

Matthew Hepple's sister, Wendy Hepple, testified that Rikki had come to live with her in Albuquerque in December 2005. She said the Hepples were having problems with the girl's behavior and that Sarah Hepple had been having problems with her pregnancy.

"It was good; she was nervous and a little depressed," Wendy Hepple said of Rikki's attitude when she first came to New Mexico. "She did good for the first couple of weeks. Matt and Sarah called all the time to check on her."

Wendy Hepple testified that after a few weeks, the teenager began to "act out." She also said the girl would constantly argue with her daughter, initiated one physical altercation with her and threatened that she would kill the cat on a number of occasions.

The witness told the jury that she also saw Rikki intentionally scratch her wrist with a broken CD case.

"They were isolated incidents that happened over time, but they increased in frequency and became more and more extreme," Wendy Hepple said.

Under cross-examination, Wendy Hepple admitted that she didn't take the teenager to the doctor or to the hospital when she witnessed her hurting herself or exhibiting any of the alleged behaviors.

The prosecution questioned their rebuttal witness Dr. George Davis, the child psychologist who diagnosed both Rikki and Joseph with having reactive attachment disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder.

In contrast to the testimony given by Revard, Davis said the symptoms of reactive attachment disorder, according the standard diagnostic tests, include changes in quality of speech, no emotion when speaking about history, being cheerful and talkative, not exhibiting overfamiliarity with all adults, having a poor establishment of trust and not having an accurate read of the situation.

He said Rikki exhibited symptoms of being hyperactive, being superficial and an inability to show affection.

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