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© St. Petersburg Times, published January 26, 2002
LARGO -- The 11-year-old girl was showered with an adult's affection and gifts.
Christopher Lee Allen, director of a YMCA outreach program, gave the girl toys and videos. He lavished gifts of jewelry and clothing on her. He sent her notes in her lunch box and the pockets of the clothes he gave her.
One note said, "I love you and always will."
The girl, now 13, testified at Allen's sexual battery trial on Friday that Allen gave her other things along the way. Hugs. Passionate kisses. She frequently sat on his lap. And finally, she said, the man she affectionately called Big Goober fondled her two times at his St. Petersburg apartment on nights she slept over.
"I was trying to get away from him," said the girl, who is not named because of the nature of the charges. "I was kind of shocked. . . . I didn't tell nobody because I was afraid."
Allen, 27, who faces life in prison on two charges of sexual battery on a child under 12, looked on attentively during much of the girl's four hours of testimony. She spoke in a soft, often barely audible voice. She looked straight ahead at prosecutor Bill Loughery as he questioned her, seldom looking over at Allen.
Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Nancy Moate Ley cleared the courtroom of all people except lawyers, essential court personnel and news reporters for her testimony.
Defense attorney Anthony Battaglia will cross-examine the girl Monday and has already told jurors that the girl made up the accusation against Allen because she was mad at him.
Under questioning by Loughery, the girl acknowledged that she kept going back to Allen after the fondling incidents. The girl said she felt as if she had no other choice.
"If I stopped coming around," she said, "he'd know something was up. I didn't want him mad at me or nothing."
One of the fondling incidents occurred in Allen's computer room as she lay under a blanket, she testified. Another boy was in the room playing the computer. She said Allen climbed under the blanket, his belly to her back, and reached around to fondle her.
"I got up and said I had to go to the bathroom," she said.
She testified that Allen tried to fondle her on other occasions, though he was unable to do so successfully.
Through her testimony, the girl never became emotional or cried. She was clearly nervous and had expressed concern that other children who might know her had been allowed to sit in court during pretrial testimony earlier this week.
The girl was from a troubled home. Her father, who did not live with her, committed suicide in 1998. Her mother partied and used drugs, the girl testified. At times, the parties got so loud, she would sleep at Allen's home.
Allen worked for several YMCA programs. He directed the outreach program at the French Villas apartment complex, where the girl lived. He also worked at a program at St. Petersburg's Maximo Elementary School.
Allen was charged with lewd and lascivious conduct in South Carolina and was acquitted at a trial in 1997. He still faces trial later this year in Pinellas on three lewd and lascivious charges for alleged conduct toward other children.