GREENFIELD — A little girl told a judge Monday her mother’s ex-boyfriend once tried to sexually abuse her, saying please while trying to put his hands down her pants until she finally forced the man away.
But it wasn’t the only time 33-year-old Jonathan Rivera made her feel uncomfortable, she testified. The man would often kiss her on the mouth, she told the judge — but only when her mother wasn’t looking.
Rivera, 2553 S. Eighth St., Apt. A, Camden, New Jersey, was found guilty of a single Level 4 felony count of attempt to commit child molest Monday after a single-day bench trial in Hancock County Superior Court 1, officials said.
The young victim came forward last year to tell police she’d once woken up with Rivera lying next to her as he tried to touch her under her clothes.
As she resisted his advances by pushing his hand away from her, he said, “Please, please, please,” she told the judge.
The girl said she repeatedly told Rivera “no,” and pushed him away from her. Eventually he left her alone, she testified.
The girl told her story from the witness stand to Hancock County Court Commissioner Cody Coombs, who served as the judge during Monday’s proceedings and heard nearly three hours’ worth of testimony. The girl was one of three witnesses prosecutors called while presenting evidence against Rivera in hopes of convincing Coombs the man was guilty of the crime charged.
The state’s efforts proved to be successful.
After telling those in the courtroom Monday he’d take the matter under advisement, Coombs announced a guilty verdict late Monday afternoon, according to prosecutors.
Rivera denied the girl’s accusations during the trial — even though he’d agreed to plead guilty in the case twice before backing out of deals with prosecutors, court records show.
Rivera reportedly accepted two different plea agreements; but when the time came for him to plead guilty before a judge, the deals fell apart, records show.
Rivera first appeared in court to plead guilty on June 28, but a judge tossed out the agreement that was filed, records show. Then he returned to court on July 3, and the judge accepted the plea agreement; but during the subsequent hearing Rivera told the judge he would not plead guilty to the behavior prosecutors’ outlined.
The judge immediately set the matter for a bench trial.
The girl’s mother told the judge she’d met Rivera online and eventually began dating him. Though he lived in New Jersey, he’d often come to visit and would stay with her and her three children at their home in Beech Grove.
Rivera saw himself has a “father figure” to the children, the woman testified, and he was very affectionate toward her two daughters.
The woman said not long after she and Rivera broke up after about a year of dating, she got a text message from a friend that made her worry the man might have harmed one of her daughters.
Details of what the message said were not disclosed in court; but the woman testified that it was the text that prompted her to ask the girls if Rivera had ever done anything to make them feel uncomfortable and if he’d ever tried to touch them.
That’s when one of the girls confided Rivera had once tried to touch her, the woman told the judge. She then reported the disclosure to police.
The incident occurred at a relative’s home in McCordsville, the girl and her mother testified.
The girl said she’d fallen asleep while watching a movie with other children. She woke up to Rivera trying to harm her, she said.
She was too scared at that time to tell her mother what had happened, she said.
Hancock County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Marie Castetter, who presented the state’s case, asked the girl if Rivera had ever done anything else that made her feel uncomfortable.
In response, the girl said Rivera would often kiss. When her mother was around, he’d kiss her on the forehead or on the cheek — something she described as “sweetheart kisses.” But if her mother wasn’t nearby, Rivera would kiss her on the lips. And that made her uncomfortable, she said.
“He would kiss me like a big girl,” she said.
Rivera, who was represented during the proceedings by Greenfield public defender Holly Lyons, told the judge that if he ever kissed the girl on the lips it was because her mother allowed him to.
He admitted to being affectionate toward the girls, but said it was in a fatherly way and not a sexual one.
He’d never done anything to harm them, he said. He blamed the girl’s accusations on her mother, saying he believed the woman fabricated the story to get attention or because she was harboring negative feelings about their breakup.
Rivera remains in the Hancock County Jail on a $5,000 cash bond.
A sentencing hearing had not been set at press time. The Level 4 felony Rivera faces carries a penalty of two to 12 years in prison and fines up to $10,000.