The adopted daughter of Tommy Gene Daniels reluctantly testified today that her father had disappeared down a hallway for 15 to 20 minutes on the afternoon the pastor was accused of molesting a 5-year-old girl in his Citrus Heights home.
Deputy District Attorney Kimberly Macy got the 22-year-old witness to admit on cross-examination that she told police Daniels had slipped out of the living room of his home for that time period on the afternoon that prosecutors charge he molested the girl.
Daniels' daughter testified she believes the statement she gave to police a month after the alleged July 5, 2005, molestation was inaccurate.
"I believe it was five to 10 minutes," the woman who was 15 years old at the time of the alleged molestation told a Sacramento Superior Court jury on Tuesday. "He said he was going to the bathroom...Now that I'm older I remember things better."
Macy continued to confront the woman with the report written by Citrus Heights police after her August 2005 interview, which prompted the witness finally to say, "It could have been 15 to 20 minutes."
The time frame is crucial to corroborating the previous trial testimony of the alleged victim, who is now 12. The girl testified on the first day of trial that she had been sleeping in a rear bedroom off the hallway when she was molested and that the intruder whom she identified as Daniels came in and molested her twice.
Daniels testified last week that he did open the door to the bedroom but only to let a cat inside.
The pastor of the First Baptist Church of Rio Linda, Daniels, 49, is accused on 12 counts of of molesting five girls in his home on Wapiti Place in Citrus Heights between 2003 and 2005. His attorney, Michael L. Chastaine, is expected to conclude his defense as early as Tuesday.
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