Testimony began in Marion County Court Wednesday on motions filed by State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth to allow hearsay evidence and closed circuit testimony in the upcoming trial of former Marion County Coroner Troy Cannon on seven counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
Multiple potential witnesses took the stand all repeating the same story from the two alleged victims, now age 11 and 13, about how Cannon allegedly inappropriately touched the girls on the chest and private area at a time they were being introduced to his home after he married the girls’ mother. Up until that time, the girls had been in foster care. Testimony indicated the girls first told their mother and then repeated it the next day to their foster father who was the first to call police. A similar story was then told to their foster mother, during Amy Center interviews, to a sex abuse counselor from SAFE, Foster Care Manager through Carasotas Family Solutions, as well as a school counselor. Hudspeth is seeking to allow the hearsay testimony because of the age of the two alleged victims.
In his testimony, The Amy Center Forensic interviewer Skyler Ayer said both girls provided age appropriate answers during their separate interviews.
Hudspeth is asking the two alleged victims be allowed to testify via closed circuit TV to avoid direct facial contact with those in the courtroom and Cannon. The sex abuse counselor from SAFE explained to Judge Ericka Sanders and others in the courtroom that the two girls are overcoming their trauma from the incident as a result of therapy, but having to testify in person could set back their progress and could cause trauma all over again.
There was two hours of testimony on the motions before the hearing was continued to next Wednesday afternoon at one. Among those still to testify is the mother of the girls and any witnesses called by Cannon’s attorney Brian Wernsman. No testimony has yet been presented on a third motion involving limitations of testimony under the Illinois Rape Shield Law. Wernsman is objecting to the alleged victims not testifying in court as well as use of the hearsay evidence.
Because the motion hearing was not completed on Wednesday, Cannon’s trial has been pushed back to November 9th. It had been scheduled for October 13th.
