La Plata, MD – James Adam Fallin, 35 of Waldorf, was back in Charles County Circuit Court Monday, April 18 to face yet another jury on charges of sexual abuse of a minor, his daughter.

A Charles County Circuit Court jury could not decide whether Fallin sexually assaulted his minor daughter earlier this year, forcing Judge H. James West to declare a mistrial Jan. 15.

Charles County Assistant State’s Attorney Sarah K. Freeman, trying again before a new jury Monday afternoon, detailed in her opening arguments how the minor daughter was born to the defendant and the victim’s mother in 2005.

The two were never married, Freeman said, and in 2008 the couple and their daughter moved in with the defendant’s parents.

“In 2012, [the victim] disclosed that her father had been sexually abusing her,” Freeman stated.

The mother, she said, called the Department of Social Services, then filed and was granted a protection order from the defendant on a weekly basis until after three weeks when the court dismissed it.

By the time the child was seven, she began returning to consensual and supervised visits with her father. In 2014, the girl indicated her father had abused her again.

“This time, the mother calls the police,” Freeman said. “The child tells Det. Gross, the lead investigator in the case, that ‘my father done me.’

“Fingers don’t leave traces of evidence,” she warned. “You will have to rely on common sense.”

“There’s an old saying that a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth leaves your lips,” Charles County Assistant Public Defender Allison Heldreth countered. “This is a case about a lie that has gone too far.”

She argued that her client was a father, son and a member of this community.

“The most important thing you need to know is that he did not do this,” she said.

“As you can tell,” Heldreth told the jury, “this is not a normal family. Keep in mind the motives of the mother and the grandmother have when it comes to custody. The grandmother, who currently has custody, has been trying to get total custody for a while.”

The case, which earlier this year lasted for the entire week, is expected to take every bit as long this time around. Testimony will resume Tuesday, April 19.

Contact Joseph Norris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com

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