COVINGTON, La. — Wiping tears from his eyes the moment he came into the courtroom, Jack Strain's third accuser took the stand Tuesday.
One of the men defense attorney Billy Gibbens referred to as “the manipulated” during his opening statement, Strain’s accuser said that he’d done everything he could think of to avoid testifying in court, but he was now there to tell the truth.
A relative of the former St. Tammany Parish Sheriff, the accuser testified that Strain molested him once as a teenager.
The alleged victim said he was asleep on the couch when he woke up to Strain grabbing his crotch. He rolled away to protect himself and pretended to be asleep. Echoing Strain’s first accuser to take the stand, he said he didn’t know what else to do.
The accuser was visibly shaken throughout his testimony. He frequently wiped away tears and kept his eyes fixed on his hands, folded on the witness stand in front of him. He answered most questions only with a simple “yes sir.”
“I’m shaking sitting here,” he said. “I didn’t want nobody to know about it, now I’m here today in front of 100 people.”
During Gibbens’ opening statement, much of his defense of Jack Strain hinged on the idea that the DA’s case against his client was so weak that they had to blackmail and manipulate two people into accusing him. This was Gibbens first chance to prove that point.
The defense attorney referenced a meeting he had with the accuser last April, where he said the DA’s office was blackmailing him. The witness admitted to telling Gibbens that Strain had not molested him and claiming that he was being threatened into testifying, but added that it was only because he’d do anything to not have to testify.
“I exhausted all options to get out of this,” he said. “This is the last place I want to be.”
Assistant District Attorney Collin Sims had the witness re-iterate that his testimony was “100% true” and that he was not threatened or blackmailed, only subpoenaed.
“The truth is the truth, and this is your story sir,” Sims said “Did Jack Strain do what he did to you when you were a sophomore on his sofa?”
The witness replied “yes sir,” one final time.