Lake Elsinore Couple's Abuse Trial Delayed Again

A trial date has been postponed again -- for the 10th times in two years -- for a sheriff's captain and his wife from Lake Elsinore, who are accused of abusing her daughter.

David and Christine Nordstrom are each charged misdemeanors in connection with the alleged mistreatment of her teenage adopted daughter, identified in court documents as ``Jane Doe.''

Another trial date has not been posted in the court's record of minutes for the trial appearance Friday.

David Nordstrom, 61, is charged with child endangerment and failure to report abuse or neglect of a child, and his 44-year-old wife is charged with abuse of a minor and false imprisonment.

They each face a year in jail if convicted, prosecutors say.

David Nordstrom, a Riverside County law enforcement veteran, is an administrator at the county coroner's office.

Christine Nordstrom was a sheriff's community services officer.

Trial proceedings were set to begin today in the case.

However, David Nordstrom's attorney, Virginia Blumenthal, requested a postponement because she is currently engaged in a trial.

Superior Court Judge John Davis rescheduled the matter for Dec. 7.

Previous trial dates -- nine of them -- have been vacated at the request of the defendants' attorneys -- without objection from the District Attorney's Office. Riverside County-based attorney Tera Harden represents Christine Nordstrom.

Blumenthal told City News Service Friday that she has no doubt about her client's innocence.

``This case really should never have been filed. It's crazy,'' the attorney said. ``No crime occurred ... My client had nothing to do with anything. That's obvious. It's not even his daughter. Neither of them should be facing charges.''

The Nordstroms were arrested in November 2008, ased on allegations made by the alleged victim, then 15, and several of Christine Nordstrom's friends.

Dina Watts, a longtime associate of the defendant, was the first to allege that the girl was being mistreated, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by sheriff's Investigator Gary Bowen.

Watts told Bowen that she had heard Christine calling her daughter a ``slut,'' ``bitch'' and ``whore,'' and that during one phone conversation, the defendant admitted to Watts ``that she had ... handcuffed Jane Doe and said she was going to leave her there until the end of her work shift.''

The witness said she also overheard Nordstrom respond to her daughter's threats of suicide by telling her to ``do it at home so she would not be embarrassed if her coworkers found Jane Doe dead on the street,'' according to the affidavit.

Court papers state that Jane Doe alleged her mother punched her in the mouth. When the girl showed up at Elsinore High School with a bruised eye, a teacher asked what had happened, and the victim replied that her mother had hit her that morning, as well as other occasions, according to investigators.

Another witness, Patricia Wilson, whose brother was Christine Nordstrom's first husband, alleged that the woman first called her daughter a ``little bitch'' when she was two years old, shortly after adopting her.

According to Wilson, she once saw the defendant pick her daughter up by the hair and drag her 20 feet.

--City News Service contributed to this report