The attorney for a former lawman told a Pulaski County jury Wednesday that her client is not physically capable of the sex crimes he's accused of committing.
With one of his accusers saying James Nelson England forced her to have sex 400 times in the period of about 18 months while she was a teenager, lawyer Sara Merritt called on jurors to be skeptical of the accusations, given the 46-year-old former Perry County sheriff's deputy's medical condition.
"I want you to think about those numbers," said Merritt, referring to the 531 days between January 2009 and June 2010 when the abuse is alleged to have occurred. "That's an awful lot of sex in a short amount of time."
England, an unsuccessful candidate for Perry County sheriff in 2001 and the one-time police chief of Bull Shoals, is accused of rape and incest involving two sisters, who are now 30 and 23. The charges together carry a potential life sentence. The younger woman testified she was 17 when England began abusing her while her older sister said the abuse began when she was 16.
Merritt did not say whether England will testify, but his doctor is scheduled to take the stand for the defense after proceedings before Circuit Judge Herb Wright resume at 10 a.m. today.
Merritt said England was being treated for erectile dysfunction, low testosterone, hypogonadism and prostate cancer that involved having that gland removed surgically.
She told jurors that not only was England physically incapable of the crimes but also that his job as a self-employed cattle hauler meant he was on the road in his semitrailer during much of the time he's alleged to have been abusing the women.
The older sister told an Arkansas State Police investigator in 2012 that England had been abusing her. Agent Mark Brice testified he'd heard rumors about the woman and England, whom he'd known for years, and asked her whether they were true while he was investigating a June 2012 arson fire on the 15-acre England property at 1501 Arkansas 60.
The case was moved to Little Rock from Perryville because England, of Houston, is well-known in the county, and his relationship with the older sister was the subject of intense gossip before his arrest in August 2012.
Prosecutors Amanda Fields and Leigh Patterson rested their case Wednesday evening after calling seven witnesses, including the accusers and their mother.
Their final witness, Debbie Keathley of Conway, told jurors she had befriended the older sister after coming to suspect something sinister about her relationship with England. Keathley, the owner of OK Corral Western Store, told jurors how the woman eventually told her what England had been doing, saying she helped the woman avoid England. Keathley said she intercepted a phone call to the woman from England in which he "confessed" the "improper relationship" to her.
"He thought for whatever reason he could tell me about it," said Keathley, telling jurors she told England he should be ashamed of himself.
Questioned by the defense about why she didn't tell police or England's wife, who divorced him because of the accusations, Keathley said she didn't think it was her place to tell the woman's secret, but she had encouraged the woman to go to police.
The first witness was the younger sister who defended her accusation that England had sexually abused her 400 times, saying the assaults occurred daily, sometimes twice a day between the time she turned 17 and when she worked up the strength to get away from him in 2010.
"It happened a lot," she told jurors.
The women said they knew that England was abusing both of them, but they never talked about what was going on and each even acted as lookouts for England at times when he was having sex with the other sister.
"It was like an understood thing [not to talk about it]," the 23-year-old testified. "I didn't know how to talk to her about it."
A trip to a Florida church camp helped her gather the wherewithal to begin avoiding England, she testified.
"I felt like I needed to get myself free," she said.
The sisters told jurors they weren't able to tell anyone for a long time.
"I was embarrassed because I thought it was my fault," the younger sister testified. "He would make me believe it was my fault."
"I didn't [think] anything would come of it," the older sister said, because of England's law enforcement ties. "I was afraid he would do something to my sister or me."
She said England sometimes had difficulty having sex and that arousal was sometimes painful for him. After his surgery, he sometimes prepared with a medical pump provided by doctors, she testified.
The 30-year-old told jurors she had been the caretaker for England's ailing mother and had helped manage his trucking business. She disputed defense accusations that she owed England $8,695, although she had signed an IOU for the money, which was used to buy a mobile home.
Metro on 05/07/2015