Adoptive dad fathered her child, woman testifies

Adoptive dad fathered her child, woman testifies

By Karen Smith

STAFF WRITER

A 43-year-old Berkley man faces trial in Oakland County Circuit Court on charges he had sex with his adopted daughter, fathering a child with her when she was 17.

Gerald Dale Snapp was bound over for trial on eight felony counts during a preliminary examination Tuesday in 45A District Court. He is being held on a $1.5 million cash bond, which Judge William R. Sauer continued.

The adopted daughter testified during the preliminary exam that Snapp, an employee of the Michigan Department of Human Services at the time of his arrest, sexually assaulted her on three occasions - twice when she was 15 and another time when she 16 - while she was a foster child living in his home on Cummings. She testified he then had intercourse with her after she was adopted by him in September 2003, which resulted in her becoming pregnant with a daughter, now 3.

DNA TESTING

"He just said, 'Shhh. Don't scream.' I was quiet. I told him no, leave me alone," she said, describing the 2003 attack in a basement bedroom, where she had been sleeping alone while other family members, including her adoptive mother, were in bed upstairs.

DNA testing determined with 99.99 percent certainty that Snapp is the 3-year-old's father, according to a document submitted for evidence.

The adopted daughter, now 22, said a friend told police about the assaults when she was a minor, though she testified she denied being sexually abused when an officer showed up at the house to investigate. She said she told the officer her younger sisters, Snapp's two biological children, were being abused. "I told him the girls were, not me," she said.

She said she didn't tell police about the 2003 attack that resulted in her becoming pregnant when it happened, but she did tell her adoptive mother "on and off" about the alleged assaults.

CHARGES BROUGHT

"I didn't want Gerry to be put in jail," she testified, also adding she didn't know how to go about notifying authorities. "I didn't want to ruin his family."

She said she later changed her mind about pressing charges.

Police learned of the allegations following an interview of the 3-year-old at Care House in Pontiac, an agency that works to prevent child abuse and neglect, Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Giles said. Though the daughter was 17 and an adult when impregnated, Snapp's relationship to her as her adoptive father and his allegedly forcing himself on her made it a crime, Giles said.

"The judge did the right thing," he said of his decision to bind the case over to Circuit Court and continue the bond.

CREDIBILITY QUESTIONED

Defense attorney Jerome Sabotta, who asked for some of the charges to be dropped and for the bond to be reduced to $10,000, or 10 percent, argued the prosecutor hadn't met the burden of proof that the assaults when the daughter was a minor occurred.

"Her credibility is in question," he said.

He asked the daughter if she made the allegations because of a fight over custody of the 3-year-old, which she denied. "Gerry said ... he wanted to have her on weekends. He never told me he wanted custody," she said.

The adoptive daughter was the only witness to testify.

Snapp's wife was excused from testifying because of the possibility of self-incrimination.

The remaining children - the two biological daughters and an adopted son - have been removed from the home and a neglect petition has been filed, Giles said.

Snapp, who did not deal directly with children in his job with the state, is expected to be arraigned in circuit court at 1 p.m. Feb. 28. The case has been assigned to Judge Mark Goldsmith.

ksmith@hometownlife.com | (248) 901-2592