Defense: Child Sex Abuse Case Based on 'Compulsive Lies'

An attorney representing a Hampton man on trial for allegedly sexually abusing a young boy and two young girls painted the state’s case Tuesday as rife with inconsistencies and hyperbole, indicating the felony case against his client is based more upon statements from two “unreliable” individuals than reality.

The trial of Leonard “Lenny” Aldrich, 64, of 340 Lafayette Road, Apt. 107, began in Rockingham Superior Court Tuesday morning with an 8-year-old male victim — who was 6 during the alleged sexual assault — testifying that Aldrich sexually assaulted him two years ago and that he was aware that Aldrich sexually assaulted the two girls on Jan. 29, 2012.

The mother of the two girls also testified Tuesday, outlining a graphic incident in which she walked in on Aldrich assaulting her daughters.

Patrick Fleming, a Portsmouth-based attorney representing Aldrich, denied the assaults took place, though, claiming in his opening arguments that the boy is known for "compulsive lies" and that the woman has a "reputation... as an untruthful person" who has made claims as part of an effort to "get [Aldrich] out of the way.

"It's a point of consistency with other individual facts where the state will fail in this case," said Fleming. "The question is, where would Lenny Aldrich’s motivation be [to sexually assault the children]?”

Aldrich, who was silent in court Tuesday while wearing a dark suit, a white shirt without a tie and sneakers, in addition to closely-cropped hair and a trimmed moustache, is facing three counts of felonious sexual assault and one count of aggravated felonious sexual assault.

Aldrich was allegedly watching the children when the alleged assaults occurred, although Fleming said based on the witnesses' reputation, the assaults could have just been a disciplinary act against the boy or the changing of the two girls, who were 4 years old and 20 months old at the time of the alleged incident.

Police reports and the testimony Tuesday from the girls' mother contain claims and first-hand accounts that differ from that theory, though. The boy, who was upbeat yet soft-spoken while giving mostly one-word "right" and "yes" answers during his testimony, also insisted during lengthy questioning periods Tuesday with Prosecutor Stephanie Johnson that the incidents weren't something he just imagined.

Johnson: "You talked about if something happened in your imagination that it’s real. So, did [the assaults] happen in your imagination? Are you saying [Aldrich] did not touch you?"

Victim: "He did."

Johnson: "In your imagination or something else?"

Victim: "Something else."

...

Johnson: "When you say something else, does that mean it really did happen?"

Victim: "Yes."

Johnson: "So if that really did not happen, would you tell us that?"

Victim: "Yes."

The boy also told Johnson that he isn't fabricating information about the girls' assault, which while on the stand Tuesday he claimed he didn't witness. While he admitted he wants to "help" the victims, the boy said that Aldrich's actions were real and that they were similar to the things Aldrich "always used to do" to him.

The mother of the female victims testified Tuesday that there is no argument or disagreement that prompted her to make claims against Aldrich as the defense suggests, but rather that she walked in on him in his home on Jan. 29, 2012, and saw him assaulting the girls. The mother testified that she saw Aldrich was visibly aroused.

The mother also testified Tuesday that after she contacted police following the assault on her two girls, Aldrich allegedly made statements while she watched him pack clothing and other belongings like he was going to "leave.

"One thing I remember him saying – and I don’t think it was directed at me – was that he knew what he had done was 'wrong,' but then almost instantaneously after he said that, he said he had done 'nothing wrong,'" testified the woman.

The trial against Aldrich is set to resume at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Court records indicate the trial is also expected to continue through to Thursday, and investigators from the Hampton Police Department are expected to take the stand during the trial.