Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Charged with two counts of criminal deviate conduct and with sexual battery, a Warsaw man is on trial in Kosciusko Superior Court I after allegedly forcing himself on a 16-year-old girl in July 1997.
Walter W. McKee, 35, of North Webster, is accused of telling the alleged victim that if she didn't submit to the acts that she might not wake up the next morning. The incident reportedly took place at the teen-ager's North Webster house while her mother was at work. McKee was reportedly drinking throughout that day.
The fate of the thin and bearded McKee will be determined by the jury today.
The victim testified Tuesday afternoon that she was grounded for not being at home when she was supposed to be. She said McKee asked her what she would do to become "ungrounded" and wanted to play "Truth or Dare" in her bedroom, with her dare being that she would have to run around the house naked. She told McKee she didn't want to play.
The victim, now 17, said McKee also asked her what she would do if she got raped and she said she told him she didn't know because it never happened to her before. McKee then reportedly closed her bedroom door, removed the swim trunks he was wearing and laid on top of her while she was clothed.
The teen-ager told the court she struggled and screamed and McKee then got up and put his swim trunks back on.
"What were you thinking then?" asked Chief Deputy Prosecutor Byron Tinkey.
"I was thinking something bad was gonna happen," she said. "I was scared out of my mind. ... He said he was testing me to see what I would do if I got raped."
She said the two of them continued to talk for a while and "all of a sudden, he was telling me to get undressed and lay on the bed or I'd never wake up in the morning ... he kept telling me to do what I was told. I had no choice."
Tears welled in the victim's eyes as she testified that she didn't think she could successfully fight McKee off because her bedroom door was across the room from where she was, she was cornered on the bed and McKee was too strong for her.
The teen-ager said she didn't tell her mother about the incident right away, but did call a friend the next day and ultimately was examined by a doctor at Kosciusko Community Hospital. The police also were contacted and the victim's mother, who works third shift, was called out of work and informed of the allegations made against McKee.
A relative of the victim's mother, who had gone fishing with McKee both the day of the alleged attack and the day following, said he noticed a change in McKee's demeanor during the second outing.
"We spent a lot of time fishing without catching anything, but he was in no hurry to get back," the witness testified.
Neither the victim nor her mother has seen McKee since the allegations were made 18 months ago. McKee was held on $100,000 bond in the Kosciusko County Jail for about six months after his arrest and later released on his own recognizance and ordered to appear for trial.
Testimony Tuesday insinuated the teen might be making up the allegations against McKee because she was mad at him. The alleged victim said this was not the case.
However, defense attorney Michael Miner - on cross-examination of the emergency room doctor - said, "The question everyone's dying to know is, was there any evidence of assault" on the victim.
Dr. Daniel Chaffee said his examination of the victim "could neither substantiate or rule out" whether the alleged attack actually took place.
He told the court during questioning by the prosecution that evidence can be lost if time passes between the time of the occurrence and the time of the examination and if, for example, the victim takes a bath or changes clothes.
Chaffee said he was "somewhat surprised," though, by the lack of physical evidence, but "I can't exclude that the act occurred."
Since the alleged attack, the teen's mother told the court, her daughter has changed her sleeping habits, keeping a light on, locking the bedroom door and taking the family dog into her room with her. Also, the mother said, the teen dresses differently, wearing clothes that button "all the way up" and she doesn't like to be around men. The teen-ager does, however, have a boyfriend, the mother said during cross-examination.
McKee took the stand in his own defense this morning and said all he did with his accuser was talk. He said the alleged victim wanted to smoke marijuana with him and he denied removing his or her clothing and he denied lying on top of her.
If convicted on all three counts, McKee could be sentenced to up to 78 years in prison. One of the criminal deviate conduct charges is a Class A felony and the other a Class B felony. The sexual battery charge is a Class C felony.
