Sex abuse trial begins for former bus driver

A former Madison County school bus mechanic and fill-in bus driver started his third trial Tuesday on sex-related charges involving a then-13-year-old friend of his daughter.
Oscar Robert Lemen, 48, faces the second day of a jury trial today on charges of forcible sodomy and object penetration in connection with incidents that reportedly happened between late 2004 and May 2005.
The victim, who is now 17, took the stand Tuesday. She told the court she became friends with Lemen’s daughter in January 2004 when they were both in seventh grade at a Culpeper County school.
When her friend moved to Madison, the teen said, she and her friend started visiting each other on weekends at Lemen’s Albemarle home. She testified when they were at her friend’s house, they would usually hang out in her second-floor room, talking and listening to music. However, her friend had only one bed in her room, so the teen would spend the night on the living room couch.
The girl testified that in late 2004, Lemen started touching her between her legs in the living room.
“I thought it was an accident … but then he did it again,” she said in court Tuesday.
She testified that she continued to visit Lemen’s home because she didn’t want to upset her friend, who she said had expressed suicidal thoughts. Lemen also continued to visit her on the couch, the teen said. She testified about a couple of encounters that she said caused her to cry and try to hide from Lemen in the bathroom.
The victim’s mother testified Tuesday that she started noticing changes in her daughter in December 2004. She said that her daughter became moody, cried frequently and gained about 40 pounds in two months. The victim finally told her mother about the abuse in 2005, with some prompting from her boyfriend, the mother said.
Lemen was acquitted of several counts of carnal knowledge of a minor August 2006 in Madison County in connection with incidents with the same girl. Three months later, an Albemarle grand jury handed down an indictment charging him with 18 felonies. An Albemarle jury assembled in October deadlocked on the charges, which were forcing a minor to have sex through threats or intimidation and object penetration.
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Darby Lowe told the judge Tuesday that the prosecution is only trying Lemen on two of the 18 indictments because the cases for the other charges are weaker.
“The victim couldn’t discern specific dates,” Lowe said in court. “It had nothing to do with whether they are relevant.”
Lemen could face 10 years in prison if convicted of both charges.