Hollister
– A judge declared a mistrial in the child molestation case
involving alleged cult leader Richarde Monde after the jury came
back deadlocked with a 11-1 vote in favor of the prosecution.
Hollister – A judge declared a mistrial in the child molestation case involving alleged cult leader Richarde Monde after the jury came back deadlocked with a 11-1 vote in favor of the prosecution.
The jury, which deliberated for two days, declared it was hopelessly stuck Friday afternoon.
“It was a very good jury, but we were deadlocked,” one juror said to the judge after court. “We didn’t try to hurry through it.”
San Benito County Superior Court Judge Steven Sanders will set a second trial date Monday. Defense attorney Arthur Cantu said he is invoking Monde’s right to a speedy trial and hopes to be back by mid-May.
“We feel completely vindicated,” Cantu said.
Deputy District Attorney Denny Wei said he plans to be even more prepared the second time around.
“Some of the jurors were nice enough to talk to us and we will take their recommendations and input in deciding how to present the case next time,” he said.
During the trial, jurors heard two days of often sexually explicit testimony in which the 14-year-old victim testified that Monde ordered her to touch his penis when she was 7 years old. Other women, including the victim’s mother, Jessica Holt, and another woman, Wynona Tara, who is enmeshed in a child custody battle with Monde, characterized the home Monde lived in with seven women at one time as a cult where the women were routinely forced to perform sex acts on him and each other.
Several hours into their deliberations, jury members asked to revisit testimony from several of Wei’s witnesses, including Monde’s daughter and the victim. But when they couldn’t make a decision, they again asked to hear testimony from two defense witnesses who said the alleged molestation was purely accidental and that there has never been a cult. The women called to Monde’s defense said the victim, while playing a game the defense called “sneak on dad,” jumped on Monde while he was in bed naked and accidentally brushed up against his penis.
Cantu said he hopes the prosecution entertains the notion of a settlement.
If found guilty, Monde faces up to three years in prison.
