Accusations that the Maumelle High School band director molested a student for years are the work of a man with a grudge against Carl Lyle Mouton, the defendant's lawyer told a Pulaski County jury on Wednesday.
"That did not happen," attorney Jeff Rosenzweig said in his opening statement. "Carl Mouton will tell you himself this did not happen ... when he testifies. It is being used by people who have an ax to grind against Carl Mouton."
Mouton's accuser is a misguided teenage girl who has lied about Mouton, Rosenzweig said. Mouton's nemesis, a longtime band booster whom Mouton ousted from the program, manipulated the girl into telling those lies, Rosenzweig said.
Rosenzweig said he could call as many as nine witnesses, aside from Mouton, when the defense begins its case at 9:45 a.m. this morning. The trial is expected to conclude today.
Mouton is charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault over allegations by a 16-year-old student who has since left the school.
He was arrested the day before the school's May 2016 graduation ceremony and has since been placed on administrative leave. The charges together carry a sentence of up to 40 years in prison.
Prosecutors told jurors that Mouton regularly molested the girl around the school's band hall over a two-year period. That abuse consisted of regularly groping the girl's buttocks under the pretense of hugging her from the time she was 14 until she was 16, in May 2016. They say his abuse of the girl peaked in July 2015, when Mouton pulled down her shirt and kissed her breasts.
Rosenzweig told jurors that the timing of the girl's accusations is particularly significant because they were made the same day that Mouton had supplanted a longtime band booster in the parents program. Mouton and the man had been feuding for some time because Mouton had questioned the man's continued participation in the booster program, since all of the man's children had graduated, the attorney said.
But the same day Mouton ousted the man from the boosters, the girl's accusations are made known to the authorities, through a close friend of the man's, the mother of the girl's best friend, according to Rosenzweig. Even the girl has said the timing looks suspicious, Rosenzweig said.
Deputy prosecutor Michelle Quiller told jurors that while the girl might have had a "schoolgirl crush" on Mouton, the 58-year-old defendant took advantage of her affection and regard for him to repeatedly molest her.
The girl never wanted anyone to find out what Mouton was doing to her, according to prosecutors. The girl, now 17, is a "genius" but her success in academics also caused her to struggle socially at Maumelle High, Quiller told jurors.
That struggle to fit in led the girl to bond with another socially awkward band student, and both girls came to look at the band and related musical activities as a refuge, according to the prosecutor.
It was that bond between the girls that led to Mouton's accuser confiding in her friend about what the band director had been doing to her, Quiller said.
The other girl kept that secret for almost a year, just as the accuser wanted, until the burden of knowing what was happening became too much to bear, the prosecutor said. The other girl told her mother, who notified authorities. Mouton was arrested within a week by Maumelle police, Quiller said.
Prosecutors rested their case after calling eight witnesses on Wednesday. The fourth witness was the accuser. She spent about 45 minutes on the witness stand answering questions. The girl, who said she is considering pursuing a career in neuroscience, called Mouton "nice," a "fun guy" and friend whom she could confide in more than any of her other teachers. The girl said she was 14 when Mouton first "grabbed" her buttocks.
She described her reaction as surprise and shock. But she also enjoyed his attention, telling jurors she felt like they shared a special relationship although they never talked about what he was doing.
"I didn't think it was gross or anything. I just kind of went with it," she testified, saying she had a "little bit" of a crush on the teacher. "I know it wasn't normal to do. I'd say I liked it. I was a developing teenage girl. I felt like it was a relationship in some way."
The touching was a regular occurrence, usually through her clothes, but sometimes Mouton went so far as to put his hand down the back of her pants, the girl said.
She told jurors she didn't resist when Mouton pulled down her shirt and put his mouth on her breasts. The encounter ended only because her family was waiting for her, she said.
"I felt as if we had gone pretty far," the girl said, apparently struggling to find the right words to describe her emotions at the time. "I was like, wow, that happened."
She said her affection and regard for Mouton kept her from being completely forthcoming with police last year.
"Full disclosure. I was really scared for Mr. Mouton and I wanted to cut him some slack," she told jurors. "I ended up telling [her friend] reluctantly. I told her I didn't want to ruin his career."
Looking back, she told jurors, she can see that Mouton was deliberately manipulating her.
"I would say this was a pretty serious case of grooming," the girl said, using the term for how pedophiles befriend their victims and establish an emotional connection before abusing them.
The girl scoffed at the idea that she'd made up the accusations against Mouton in some kind of attempt to show support for a troubled friend who was having difficulty in school.
"I don't know why telling her I was molested would make her feel better," she told Rosenzweig.
She disputed the defense's suggestion that she'd been manipulated as part of some vendetta against Mouton. Speaking out against him has cost her a lot, she told jurors.
"I feel like I've lost friends. I've lost some dignity," she testified. "I was not put up to this at all. I couldn't control how it came out. He was one of my favorite teachers."
The girl said the high school band made a point of snubbing her when she attended the graduation ceremony last year. She said she's also had to endure being called a liar by some other band members.
She said she didn't want to come forward, mainly out of concern about how Mouton would be hurt. But now she's glad she did.
"Now that I've had time to think about it, I'm doing the right thing," she said. "Hopefully I've stopped this from happening to someone else."
Metro on 06/01/2017