Friday, September 07, 2007

"...a man who must be obeyed...."

From "Teen tells of alleged rapes by teacher" at the Lowell Sun:
Wamala was a strict disciplinarian, the girl testified, who demanded obedience and put signs up in his bathroom warning that defiance won't be tolerated.

"This is a case about a man who must be obeyed," prosecutor Roger "Rusty" Chadwick said.

The girl testified that once a month, after her chess tournaments, Wamala only needed to give her "a look" with his eyes and she knew to go to his room either later that night or early the next morning.
Here is more coverage of the first day of the trial from the Nashua Telegraph:
In their opening arguments, the two attorneys touched on Wamala’s Ugandan heritage and his success in New England. [Wamala's public defender, Anthony] Sculimbrene started his argument with a slow recounting of why Wamala wanted to flee violent Uganda, including having to walk by a dead body left to rot on the ground.

Wamala, who wore a suit and sat at a table taking notes and listening, stood to shake Sculimbrene’s hand after his opening statement.

Prosecutors called the youngest of the three women, now 16, as their first witness. The girl testified matter-of-factly that Wamala raped her at least once a month during an 11-month span in 2005 and 2006, often around the time of chess tournaments in which they were both involved....

Sculimbrene began to question the girl before the trial broke off for the day, and focused on her academic achievement and chess skills, apparently trying to lay the ground for an argument that she is clever enough to orchestrate a campaign of false allegations.

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