by haufoldos » Tue Jun 20, 2006 4:43 pm
<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://cf.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=13762&Section=Valley">Alleged victim testifies in sexual assault trial</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>EDINBURG — A young girl featured in a controversial television ad during the 2000 presidential campaign testified this week that the man who developed the commercial molested her for years and forced her to watch pornography and use sex toys.<br><br>The girl, now 15, told jurors Carey Lee Cramer — a 44-year-old political consultant who gained national notoriety when he released an anti-Al Gore ad showing a young girl picking daisy petals and ending in a nuclear blast — began molesting her in the third grade, when she lived in Mercedes with him, his then-wife and her younger brother.<br><br>The ad in which she and another girl were featured was a remake of one Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign used against Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964.<br><br>The girl took the stand Thursday in Cramer’s aggravated child sexual assault trial, which began June 7 in Hidalgo County before Visiting Judge Homer Salinas’ Auxiliary Court A. She continued testifying Friday.<br><br>Cramer’s defense attorney, Charles Banker, argues the allegations are false and stem from a custody battle over the son Cramer shares with his ex-wife, Samara Whittaker.<br><br>The girl shared graphic testimony. At times, she appeared to fight back tears and her voice quivered as she gave detailed accounts.<br><br>She told jurors Cramer began by taking her into his home office and showing her pornography when she was 8. He would touch her sexually, remove her clothing and perform deviant sexual acts on her. The incidents occurred weekly, when the girl was home alone with Cramer.<br><br>By the time she was in the fifth grade, Cramer began to force her to perform acts he would share with her from pornographic Web sites, including oral sex, she said. He also tried to make the girl use a vibrator and other sex toys, she continued. And Cramer forced her to have sex with him three times, she testified.<br><br>She said Cramer continued to molest her after they moved from Mercedes to McAllen and Tucson, Ariz., until she finally reported the abuse in 2004.<br><br>In response to the defense’s claim she was lying to help Whittaker in her custody battle, she denied it.<br><br>"I haven’t lied for her and I won’t," she said. "I told you everything that happened that he did to me."<br><br>She said she initially denied the abuse to Child Protective Services because Cramer threatened to keep her away from her family if she told.<br><br>Jurors have also heard testimony from the girl’s therapist, a doctor who examined her and police officers who investigated the case.<br><br>Earlier in the week, another 15-year-old testified that Cramer touched her under her underwear one time when she was visiting the family in Mercedes. Cramer’s alleged victims are relatives.<br><br>The ad for which Cramer gained national attention was produced to accuse the Clinton-Gore Administration of giving nuclear technology to China in return for campaign contributions. At the time, he refused to identify who financed the commercial. <p></p><i></i>
