'Humiliating' experience described
By JOHN BURNETT
A 23-year-old woman testified in Hilo Circuit Court Monday that her former stepfather sexually assaulted her from age 10 until her early teens.
The woman, who now lives in Arkansas, said she did not report the alleged abuse by Gary Keith Vaughan to her mother or to police until 2003 because she was "confused, scared and it was humiliating." She said the alleged incidents, "too many to recall," occurred in four different homes where the family lived in Hilo and Puna.
"I feared for my siblings," she testified. "I feared he would harm them or my mother in retaliation for speaking out."
The 57-year-old Vaughan is on trial for numerous first- and third-degree sex assault charges. He's in custody in lieu of $200,000 bail.
In addition to the woman, the trial's first witness, Vaughan allegedly molested or attempted to molest the girl's brother, who is a year younger, and her half-sister who is now in her late teens. The abuse reportedly took place between December 1997 and November 2003. The alleged victims' mother and Vaughan separated shortly after she reported the alleged molestation to police. They've since divorced.
The mother, Valerie Vaughan, called the situation "a parent's worst nightmare" in a 2007 interview with the Tribune-Herald.
"It's a terrible feeling when you discover the one you're closest to is the one you have to fear," she said.
Vaughan's attorney, Keith Shigetomi, said in his opening arguments that the allegations were concocted by Valerie Vaughan after her marriage with Vaughan -- her third husband -- had gone sour.
The woman testified that at first she liked Vaughan because he took the family on outings. She said that shortly after the family moved from Arkansas to Hawaii, the molestation started with Vaughan touching her genitals. She said the abuse escalated to intercourse. Recalling one alleged incident she testified: "When he calls me into a room and tells me to take my clothes off, by this time it was almost routine."
On cross examination, Shigetomi used transcripts from a Child Protective Service interview in 2001, a police interview in 2003 and grand jury proceedings in 2006 to contradict the woman's testimony.
Under direct examination by Deputy Prosecutor Shannon Kagawa, the woman testified that during a camping trip to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park with Vaughan and her brother, Vaughan touched her genitals and that she heard "rustling noises."
"I remember looking up and seeing Gary's hand moving quickly away from my brother's body down by his side," she said.
During cross examination, Shigetomi asked the woman: "On Nov. 8, 2006, did you testify in front of the grand jury that you saw Gary touching your brother's genitals?"
She said that she had, and agreed the detail wasn't in her earlier testimony.
This isn't the first time Vaughan has stood trial for sex assault.
A jury in Booneville, Ark., convicted Vaughan in 1998 of two counts of raping an adopted child, and sentenced Vaughan to two life terms. The Arkansas Supreme Court denied his appeal, but a lower court judge granted Vaughan a new trial, ruling that he had an incompetent lawyer.
The victim in the Arkansas case, Melissa Crossland, told the Tribune-Herald in 2007 that she didn't want to go through another trial. Arkansas prosecutors then struck a plea bargain with Vaughan. In exchange for pleading guilty to a sexual abuse charge, he was given a 10-year suspended prison sentence. He spent about 20 months in custody, and was required to register as a sex offender in Arkansas.
According to Arkansas court records, Crossland testified that Vaughan raped her repeatedly from 1983 until she reported his actions in 1994, a few weeks before her 19th birthday.