Saturday, April 26, 2014

Dad on trial for raping adult daughter; sexually abused her as a child (Graham, Michigan)

Dad is identified as EMMET THOMAS COSIER. Notice that Daddy also sexually abused her as a child. And that as an adult, he threatened to kill her and take away her child. Custody threats are a major way that men threaten women.

http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/top-news/daughter-describes-violent-sexual-assault-at-hands-of-her-father-1.311014?page=0

Daughter describes violent sexual assault at hands of her father

By Michael D. Abernethy / Times-News
Published: Friday, April 25, 2014 at 18:41 PM.

Jurors in a rape trial watched video Friday of a woman describing to investigators two violent sexual assaults by her father, during which she said she was choked unconscious, had her head bashed against a wall and was threatened with a knife.

The assaults allegedly occurred in a Snow Camp apartment on Dec. 19, 2010, when her father, 76-year-old Emmet Thomas Cosier, of Boyne City, Mich., was visiting for Christmas. The interview video was played after lead investigator, Detective Bobby Baldwin, with the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office, took the witness stand.

The entire interview on May 6, 2011, lasted more than five hours. Jurors watched only portions of that interview deemed relevant to the trial.

Cosier is charged with first-degree rape, second-degree rape, attempted first-degree sex offense, two counts of second-degree sex offense and two counts of incest. He is charged here only with two incidents that allegedly occurred Dec. 19, 2010. His trial began Tuesday in Alamance County Superior Court and will continue next week.

The woman testified about decades of sexual abuse by Cosier as they traveled the world and worked in Africa as missionaries. Cosier and his family helped build a school in The Gambia, Africa, and he and his wife founded their own mission in 1985. Cosier is only on trial in Alamance County for the events that allegedly occurred in Snow Camp.

In the interview, the woman, now 41, said she called out and tried to scream for help but that her voice wouldn’t work. She said Cosier threatened to kill her if she told on him and also threatened to take her son away from her.

The woman said her husband, children and mother were nearby but possibly not in the apartment at the time. Cosier and the woman’s mother were staying in a neighboring apartment during their visit.

Her husband testified Thursday that he saw red marks around her neck and commented on them at the time but didn’t press his wife about what caused them. He couldn’t recall the exact events of that day, which also included a Christmas party with the whole family.

In the courtroom, the woman’s mother shook her head in disagreement with her daughter’s story during several moments of the recorded interview: once when her daughter described Cosier beating her head against the wall, and again when the woman began laughing during the interview as she described regaining consciousness to find her wrists bound by her father’s belt.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Don Dickerson, Baldwin testified about photographs of Cosier’s genitals. The woman testified she saw specific marks on Cosier’s legs during the Dec. 19 attack. None of those marks was evident in the photographs, Baldwin said.

Dickerson also pressed Baldwin about where other family members could have or would have been during the alleged attacks. Baldwin said he couldn’t say where they were, but said it would have been possible for any family member to enter the bedroom during the assaults. Baldwin will continue testifying when the trial continues at 9:30 a.m. Monday in the Alamance County Historic Courthouse.