Prosecution rests in child sex abuse case against former mayor
BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut (AP) -- Prosecutors in the child sex abuse trial of former Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano rested their case Wednesday after presenting DNA evidence linking him to semen stains found in his City Hall and law offices.
Giordano has pleaded innocent to 18 federal charges that he violated the civil rights of two girls by molesting them, conspired with a prostitute who is the mother of one girl and the aunt of the other, and used his cell phone -- an interstate device -- to set up liaisons with the children.
Frank Baechtel, a scientist at the FBI's crime lab in Quantico, Virginia, said he found Giordano's DNA on 15 samples taken from the law office and on one sample from the carpet in the mayor's office.
Baechtel said he did not recover any of his DNA from the two preteen girls who testified they were forced to perform oral sex on Giordano during encounters in those offices and elsewhere.
"One explanation, the first one that comes to my mind, is that it was never there," Baechtel said.
He also said it was possible that the girls' DNA was left in untraceable amounts.
The prostitute has pleaded guilty to state and federal charges. She and the girls have all testified against Giordano. The Associated Press is not identifying her to protect the girls' identities.
The girls were 8 and 10 years old at the time of the alleged abuse.
Giordano, who was mayor when he was arrested in 2001, faces life in prison if convicted.
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