Lewd conduct trial begins

SANDPOINT — Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall dispensed with opening remarks Tuesday and forged ahead with state’s witness testimony in the lewd conduct trial of Mark Richard Boncz.

Chief Public Defender Isabella Robertson also waived opening arguments.

Marshall called the alleged victim in the case and her family members to the stand in the second day of Boncz’s bench trial in 1st District Court.

The parents of the 5-year-old girl Boncz is accused of molesting told Judge Steve Verby Boncz was a welcome guest in the trailer behind their Priest River home until a cloud of suspicion formed over him.

The couple testified that Boncz had a much closer relationship with the girl than with any other children in the household. The girl’s mother testified that her daughter began making offhand remarks and asking troubling questions about where it’s OK to be touched.

“There’s no reason for a 5-year-old to ask these questions,” the girl’s mother said.

Both parents said their daughter was initially not forthcoming about the reasons for her questions and comments, although the girl’s father testified that she ultimately confided to him that Boncz had “touched” her.

However, the couple did not confront Boncz about the claim, report it to authorities or immediately ask him to vacate the travel trailer. They did take precautions to ensure the two were not together unsupervised.

The girl’s mother explained that they were conflicted about hectoring Boncz about her daughter’s claim but ultimately told him to leave.

Years passed before the girl made a fuller disclosure, according to Tuesday’s testimony. And both parents admitted under cross-examination that they had trouble remembering exact dates.

The alleged abuse occurred in 2005, but the allegations did not surface until earlier this year, several months before a grand jury indicted Boncz.

The alleged victim, now 10, took the stand and testified that she went to tell Boncz lunch was ready and entered the trailer to see the defendant in his underwear. She then described how Boncz raped her.

“I told him to stop,” said the girl, who was flanked by a licensed clinical social worker during her testimony. “I tried to push him off but he was too heavy.”

The girl testified making the disclosure during catechism, as she prepared for her first communion in the Catholic faith.

Boncz, 54, of Newport, Wash., has pleaded not guilty to the charge. He was convicted of sexual abuse of a minor in Bonner County in 1987, but that fact has so far been not formally introduced at trial.

He denied the claims when he was interviewed by Priest River Police Chief Ray Roberts in January. A digital video of the interview was played in court. In the video, Boncz speculates that the girl made up the allegation because he rejected the mother’s romantic advances.

“It’s somebody else putting words in her mouth,” Boncz told Roberts in the interview.