AGE KEY IN CASE OF SEXUAL ABUSE

BENTON -- The victim of a 1992 sexual assault in Dunklin County changed her age Monday, calling into question the impact of charges against a minister who told law enforcement officials he had abused her.

The victim had told the Dunklin County prosecutor's office a week before Christmas that she was born in 1975, not 1973, as she previously had said. She said during the minister's trial Monday that she wanted to give her correct age in an effort to finally tell the truth.

Prosecutor Steve Sokoloff thinks the age difference will make little change in the trial's outcome. Neither he nor defense attorneys for the minister, James Niederstadt of Malden, have disputed the case's basic facts, Sokoloff said.

The trial involves a girl who had been brought by her parents from Africa in summer 1991 to stay with Niederstadt, a Baptist pastor who had led the Vinson General Baptist Church near Risco. The girl, the daughter of missionaries, was to attend high school at Calvary Baptist Academy in Campbell while she lived with the pastor's family.

Niederstadt was charged with forcible sodomy and sexual abuse in spring 1998.

Defense attorney Daniel Moore said since the girl decided to change her age a few weeks before Monday's hearing, it throws her true age and the charges into question.

No birth certificate is available to verify her age since the girl was born in Africa to missionary parents, Moore said. Also, most state records since she came to the United States in 1991 show her birthdate as Dec. 9, 1973.

Missouri's statute of limitations on prosecution says that all felonies except class A crimes cannot be punished if charges are filed more than three years after the crime. Since forcible sodomy is one of a few unclassified crimes, Moore argued that the 1998 charges against Niederstadt were filed too late.

An exception exists for sex crimes against victims under 18, which gives 10 years to file charges.

Moore said he had asked the judge earlier to dismiss the case based on the girl's stated age of 19 at the time of the crime. The judge wouldn't do it, the attorney said.

A Missouri court has ruled before that forcible sodomy may be considered a class A felony, Sokoloff said, referring to a state appellate court decision almost eight years ago.

"But there are six or more court cases that support our point of view," Moore said.

Both attorneys agreed that the case has come down to legal definitions that the judge must decide.

In return for waiving the right to a jury trial on Monday, Sokoloff agreed to dismiss the charge of sexual abuse.

In court, the girl told Judge David how Niederstadt started by hugging her and saying how glad he was that she was staying with him and his wife. Later, he started kissing her and touching, first over her clothes and then reaching underneath them, she said.

The girl said she had run away from the home in August 1991 but returned because she had nowhere else to go.

Niederstadt began to whip the girl with a belt at that point, leaving bruises that made it hard for her to participate in gym classes at school, Sokoloff said.

After she ran away, the fondling became more frequent, she said. The girl began to sleep in different parts of the house to avoid being trapped in her bedroom with Niederstadt, the prosecutor said.

At one point she cut her hand with a pocketknife so that at the hospital she might be able to tell someone that she was being abused.

"He stayed right with her the whole time at the hospital, so she didn't say anything," Sokoloff said.

After the girl left the home to attend college in Florida, she was motivated to tell a counselor about the abuse, Sokoloff said. She received treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, but no law enforcement officials were informed about the abuse, Sokoloff said.

The girl moved to Pennsylvania, then Michigan, and began to have flashbacks, she said. It was as if she could feel her attacker's hands on her, she told the court.

She underwent further medical and psychological treatment, she said, and hospitalization, not all of which was voluntarily.

Niederstadt eventually gave investigators over three and a half hours of tape-recorded testimony telling of his relationship with the girl, Sokoloff said. In that, he tells how he had fondled the girl one or two times a week over a five-week period around March 1992. Niederstadt explained how he had also sodomized the girl using his fingers, Sokoloff said.

Niederstadt now is the pastor of a different Southeast Missouri church and works at an auto parts store in Malden, Sokoloff said.

The prosecution presented two witnesses and the defense none. The judge will hear further arguments from attorneys on Feb. 24 to allow time for review of the trial's transcript.