Jurors in the sexual assault trial of former Correctional Officer Cory Jordan Fisher Sr. received a lesson today on how children cope with sexual abuse and why they sometimes wait years to report it.

Prosecution witness Dr. Anthony Urquiza, director of a child abuse care center at the University of California Davis, explained that children deal with sexual abuse by emotionally distancing themselves from the trauma they are enduring.

“What happens is they cope by disconnecting,” Urquiza said under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Stacey Eads. He said kids try to “disengage” from the pain they feel. The care center at UC Davis sees up to 600 children a week who have been sexually or physically abused, he said. It’s not uncommon for these kids, when questioned about their experiences, to become “stoic and blank-faced.”

Fisher.

Fisher, 31, is accused of sexually assaulting three young boys and three inmates at Humboldt County Correctional Facility. All have testified during the trial, which entered its seventh day today. Although the older two boys testified to graphic abuse at Fisher’s hands, including forced oral copulation and sodomy, they also said they felt ashamed of what happened to them as youngsters.

Their mother, Angela Fisher, testified she didn’t report the abuse immediately because her sons didn’t want the abuse exposed at a public trial.

Urquiza said there are many reasons for children to keep the abuse secret. 

It’s a myth, he said, that children report molestation right away.

One factor is the “imbalance of power” between abuser and victim. Another is that the abuser may be in a close relationship with the child. Also, the child may have been threatened.

“(The perpetrator) is bigger, older, stronger,” the doctor testified. “The smart thing is to keep quiet … you know that they could hurt you. The disclosure may result in something bad happening to you.”

One example of a threat, Urquiza said, is warning the victim that no-one will believe them.

This is precisely what Fisher allegedly told the second-oldest boy is accused of molesting. The boy said he wanted to tell his mother and once almost told a high school counselor, but he kept remembering what Fisher said.

Abused children often feel helpless, he said, especially when the person harming them is a parental figure.

“If the person who’s supposed to be keeping you safe is also abusing you,” Urquiza testified, “there’s really nothing you can do. The child will submit because there’s no other recourse.”

Victim John Doe One, now 23, testified he endured years of abuse beginning when he was in fourth or fifth grade. He escaped at age 17 by joining the Army and didn’t tell his mother about the molestation until his wife was pregnant with their child. He didn’t want Fisher around the child, and he also was afraid Fisher would abuse other kids, including his brothers.

John Doe Two, now 20, didn’t admit the molestation until after his older brother came forward. Even then, he disclosed the details in stages.

One alleged victim who did report the abuse immediately was John Doe Three, now 12. He was 10 years old when Fisher allegedly asked him if his penis was hard, then touched his penis. He reported it the same day to his mother. Her response was to tell him if it happened again, Fisher would have to “go away.”

After his older brothers reported Fisher, the 12-year-old was asked whether Fisher touched him inappropriately. He said his mother apparently had forgotten what he told her before.

In addition to the alleged sexual abuse, the John Does testified they endured frequent physical abuse. Fisher apparently had a hair-trigger temper and would scream and yell, throw objects at their heads, back-hand them and punch them.

The physical abuse culminated on June 25, 2017, when Fisher broke John Doe Two’s nose, bruised his ribs and shattered his eye socket. A former Eureka police officer, Ryan McElroy, testified today that John Doe Two didn’t want to press charges against Fisher. But given the nature of his injuries, McElroy said, the incident would have been reported as a felony. Fisher is charged with assault with great bodily injury on Doe Two.

Testimony was expected to continue this afternoon before Judge Timothy Canning.

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