A Whitehall man employed by the state Child and Family Services Division at the time of his arrest was convicted Thursday of sexual crimes against a teenage girl.
Andrew T. Lewis, 53, was found guilty of solicitation of incest, multiple counts of incest and witness tampering after a two and a half day trial in Jefferson County district court. The four-woman, eight-man jury took less than an hour to reach the verdict.
Judge Luke Berger ordered a psychosexual evaluation and a pre-sentence investigation prior to sentencing. Lewis was immediately taken into custody pending a bond hearing set for March 14.
The jury heard sometimes tearful testimony from the victim, who said Lewis began encouraging her to have sex with him when she was still 15 and accelerated his contact right after her 16th birthday.
Her assertions that Lewis used various sex toys on her and asked her to perform a variety of lewd acts were bolstered by physical evidence gathered at the scene by law enforcement officers. She also testified that she was raped multiple times, given alcohol to drink and threatened with being sent away if she did not recant after reporting the crimes. She wrote a recantation letter, but testified the recantation was because she was scared and did not know what to do.
The girl’s mother took the witness stand, and her testimony supported some of what the victim said, including that Lewis had asked the mother for some of the same lewd acts. The mother also provided testimony that Lewis had called her names, matching testimony by the victim, and she identified a receipt found in the house for several sex toys purchased by Lewis around the time of the girl’s 16th birthday.
Both the mother and victim said there were hidden cameras around the house, including one in behind a picture on the victim’s bedroom wall that was a 16th birthday gift from Lewis. The girl also said there was a camera in the bathroom in what Lewis told her “was just a radio so we could have music on when we took a shower.”
Other testimony from the mother, however, disputed what the girl, adopted at around age 9, had to say. The mother said she believed the girl at first but then changed her mind. She denied pressuring the girl to recant but admitted taking the girl to see Lewis’s first defense attorney to write a letter saying she had lied about her allegations. The mother also admitted she allowed Lewis to have contact with the girl after his arrest despite a court order against it, but said it was at the girl’s request.
She also said it was “quite common” for the girl to lie and said the victim “never once told me her recant was a lie.”
The prosecution called law enforcement officers to the stand to testify that Lewis had apparently attempted to clean away evidence by washing bed sheets, moving cameras, and cleaning or locking away various other implements. He had two days after he was relieved of his duties with Child and Family Services before the search was conducted, they said.
Also on the stand was a crime lab investigator who said she found DNA from both the victim and Lewis on a sheet and other items.
Lewis attempted to explain away the evidence during his time on the witness stand.
Some cameras were no longer in place at the time of the law enforcement search because he decided to move them to the garage, and the one attached to the birthday gift picture was removed before he gave her the gift, he said. Evidence of cleaning was because he wanted to get the house in order and then teach his children to keep it clean, he said. The sex toys were purchased primarily for a friend and given away, he said. Some of the items the victim claimed were used on her were really therapeutic devices for pain relief, said Lewis. He provided the girl with alcohol because he wanted her first experience drinking to be at home where she was safe, he told jurors.
He speculated the victim made up all of the accusations because she was angry because the night before she told a friend of the alleged abuse he took away her iPod and phone for having failing grades and a number of tardies at school.
“I did not ever touch that child in an inappropriate manner,” he said.
Lewis did not address the DNA evidence in his testimony.
In asking the jury for a guilty verdict, prosecutor Steve Haddon pointed out that the victim did not go directly to law enforcement with her allegations. She told a good friend who reported it to school officials, and she also asked another friend not to tell because she was afraid she would be taken away. That is inconsistent with the notion she was out to get Lewis, he maintained.
Haddon said the victim believed she had a choice: stay silent and face continuing sexual abuse or tell someone and face being taken away from her home. “What kind of a dilemma is that for a 16-year-old girl to face?” he asked the jury.
“This young lady was petrified,” he added.
The prosecution argued that the mother turned against the girl and joined Lewis in pressuring her to recant.
“In essence they plotted against her,” said Andrew Paul, deputy county attorney.
Pointing to some of the more salacious details in the girl’s testimony, Paul asked the jurors, “Do you believe that a 15- or 16-year-old girl is so sophisticated that she can conjure up all this and even physical evidence?”
He asked, “How does a child come up with that unless it happened?”
Defense attorney Mayo Ashley told the jury that whatever the trial outcome, Lewis faced “a terrible price to have to pay for being a parent and trying to supervise your children.”
He told jurors, “This case is replete with reasonable doubt.”
Haddon told the jury Lewis “betrayed [the victim’s] trust. He took from her something that no 15- or 16-year-old should have taken from her.”
“Do no harm – that should be the first rule of order for a parent,” he said.
The victim no longer lives in Whitehall or with either parent. When the verdict was announced, she and Lewis showed no immediate visible reaction. His outward demeanor did not change as he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs. After he was gone, the victim received hugs from friends and supporters but showed little reaction.
Sentencing for Lewis will be set after the psychosexual evaluation and pre-sentence investigation report are completed.
