A teen who told police that her friend’s father, a Border Patrol agent, touched her inappropriately in his home and sexually assaulted her in a hotel room after giving her cocaine testified Friday that he “creeped her out” from the moment she met him.
The alleged victim — who was 17 at the time but has since turned 18 — testified that 46-year-old Daniel Alfredo Spear touched her private parts over her clothes while she was sleeping at his home on July 4, 2015.
She testified that on Oct. 20, 2015, she and Spear checked into a Mission Bay hotel, where he gave her “a lot of cocaine,” then fondled and orally copulated her. She said Spear also took photos of her in lingerie.
About a month and a half later, she said she told her father what had happened and police were called.
Spear faces seven charges, including oral copulation of an intoxicated minor, sexual penetration of a minor and using a minor in the production of child pornography.
Deputy District Attorney Marisa Di Tillio told a jury that the alleged victim got to know Spear because she was friends with his daughter. The girls met through a home-schooling program.
The alleged victim would spend time at the Spear home and the defendant developed his own relationship with her, using sexually charged language and asking her if she was still a virgin, Di Tillio alleged.
After the night at the hotel, Spear touched the girl’s privates after she fell asleep at his home on Halloween night, the prosecutor told the jury. Spear even talked about leaving his wife for the girl, Di Tillio said.
But defense attorney Kerry Armstrong told the jury that Spear denied touching the teen inappropriately or committing sex acts on her.
Armstrong said Spear went to the hotel last October to rent a room for the girl, who wanted to have a “big party.”
“He never looked at her as a sex partner,” Armstrong told the jury.
Armstrong said the girl brought the lingerie into the hotel room and asked Spear if he would take some photos of her because she was thinking about becoming a model.
The attorney said Spear went out of the room without his phone, and when he returned there were a lot of photos on it.
“Mr. Spear never did anything,” Armstrong told the jury. “He’s not guilty of seven charges.”
Armstrong said earlier that Spear’s 18-year law enforcement career is in jeopardy no matter what happens with the criminal case. Spear is on administrative leave from the Border Patrol.
The trial will wrap up next week. Spear faces more than 16 years in prison if convicted.
–City News Service