Prosecutor John Skidmore asked this of the jury over and over at Thursday's closing arguments in the Sammy Cohen trial. That's what this case boils down to, he said.
And that's one of the few things he and the defense agree upon. Is Cohen's daughter, now 23, telling the truth or is she lying when she says her father molested her and orchestrated a Playboy-like photo shoot of her topless and naked when she was about 14.
Skidmore can't think of a single reason she'd make this up. Cohen's public defender, John Cashion, sure can. And now the jury has to decide which to believe.
Cohen, 55, was an 11-year veteran of the Anchorage Police Department when he was arrested in 2005 and charged with 10 counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor, five counts of exploiting a minor and six counts of possessing child pornography. The first trial ended in a mistrial before the jury heard any testimony.
During this second trial in Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton's courtroom, the jury heard quite a bit of Cohen's past, from women who were underage or close to it when they say he bought them gifts, gave them back rubs, did huge favors for them -- conduct Skidmore called "grooming" for the kind of exploitation he says Cohen would later inflict on his daughter.
"Let me ask you, plain and simple: What are the odds? I mean, really, what are the odds you'd have all these folks come in to describe the same type of behavior? What are the odds that (she) would tell you, 'my father took pictures of me in 2000,' and that we would find those picture four-and-a-half years later? What are the odds we'd find those pictures just as she described them? What are the odds we would find those pictures in his home?"
Nearly five years passed between the alleged abuse and Cohen's arrest in 2005. By then, his daughter was 18. What possible motive would she have to say such things if they weren't true? the prosecutor asked.
"Was it about the divorce? Please, that was over with years ago. Custody? Ah, hello, she's 18. Custody is no longer an issue.
"Why, four and a half years later when a sergeant from the Anchorage Police Department comes to ask you this stuff, would you (lie)? What's the point, what's the purpose, what's the motive behind it? Oh I see, she wanted to have to tell a person she's never met before, a complete stranger, about the most embarrassing, uncomfortable things that have ever happened to her. ... What she really wanted to do was to have to come into this courtroom and tell a room full of strangers about these uncomfortable things.
"Remember how uncomfortable she was? Does this look like something she wanted to do? To talk about all of this?"
"What is her motive to lie?"
But that's exactly what she did, according to the defense.
Cashion talked of the dynamics and drama going on in the Cohen family in 2000, when she made the first of her allegations against her father -- that he took pictures of her topless. At the time, she believed he was cheating on her mother, Cashion said. Later, when the whole story came out in 2005, her perception was that her parents hated each other and she had to choose sides, the attorney said.
He then told jurors he expected Skidmore to tell them the defense would have them believe everyone's a liar except Sammy Cohen. But only two of them are, he said: Cohen's daughter and the younger sister of a former girlfriend who claimed Cohen raped her more than 20 years ago.
That girl's parents were aware of the allegation, Cashion said. If they believed her, why didn't they go to the police? Because they didn't believe her, according to Cashion.
About those naked photos of Cohen's daughter, the defense attorney continued.
"These photos were taken, we know that for darn sure, right? ... Someone took those photos. She certainly appears to be a willing participant to whoever did it. Whether she did it herself, she had a friend do it, we don't know. She's not saying."
Cashion then went through a list of 10 points that to him either made no sense or were outright lies, including:
• That her father was physically abusive. When pressed, she couldn't give one example, he said.
• That what he did to her had messed her up so bad, she couldn't date. In fact, she had quite a few boyfriends, Cashion said. And she had a child at 17.
• That she attempted suicide twice, once by drinking bleach. "It's not believable that you could drink bleach and that your mother doesn't know ... Her mom has no recall of any of these things."
Typical, said Skidmore in rebuttal. Blame the victim. "Mr. Cohen is the one who has all the motive to lie here."
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