The footage contradicted some of the witness's testimony, including details on which bathroom was entered first. Surveillance footage from the time of the incident was played for the court. The witness and his father then gave a statement to the police. When the witness and his father returned to the store, they spoke with store management, who eventually called the police.
He said that he saw "only the top" or Cilibraise's penis (referred to as privates) and did not see his scrotum, when asked by Hearn.
He did say that Cilibraise was sitting far back on the toilet, and that the baby was sitting more towards the defendant's stomach than his knees.
Upon cross examination from Cilibraise's attorney, Cassandra Hearn, the witness said he had never seen a man's penis in an erect state, and the he could not tell whether Cilibraise had an erection. He admitted that he was joking and laughing with his older brother about the incident because he "didn't really know it was bad," and said he "had never seen it before." When asked by Deputy District Attorney Claudia Grasso, he identified Cilibraise in the courtroom as the man he saw in the bathroom. He said the entire time he saw Cilibraise and the baby lasted "two slow seconds." The younger of his sons said that he only peeked his head inside the bathroom, and did not enter. I wanted to show my kids to do the right thing." He said he returned to Vons because he "felt like I might be saving someone's life. The witnesses' father said he was angry when he heard the story "because they left the store without notifying management of the incident." The five of them walked to their La Mesa home, where the mother told her husband, who then drove the witness back to the store in order to notify management of what his son said he had seen. They emerged from the women's bathroom and were joined by their mother, and two other siblings who were also at the store, he said. The witness was with his older brother, who was 12 at the time, and the two quickly entered the women's bathroom, where the older brother testified that his younger brother began recounting what he saw. The witness alleges that the toddler was facing away from Cilibraise, and gripping the man's "privates" with both hands, and making an up-and-down movement with his hands.Ĭilibraise's eyes were somewhat closed, and his arms were dangling at his sides while the toddler was on his lap, the youngster said in Judge Joseph Brannigan's court. The boy testified Wednesday in El Cajon Suuperior Court that he opened up the men's bathroom only to see Cilibraise sitting on the toilet, with his 2-year-old son on his lap. The case involves a June 2011 incident in the bathroom of the La Mesa Springs Vons supermarket.
A 10-year-old La Mesa boy was the key witness Wednesday in the jury trial of Russell Charles Cilibraise III-facing a possible 8-year prison sentence if convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a child at the Vons near City Hall.