Tenants Harbor teen testifies of sexual abuse by dad

ROCKLAND – An 18-year-old woman testified Monday in Knox County Superior Court that she was sexually abused for years in her Tenants Harbor home by her father and mother.

The trial, which began Monday, involved a lengthy meeting in the judge’s chambers, after which charges against Maurice Hupper, the father, were reduced from 294 counts to 41 counts. Then Delores Hupper, the victim’s mother, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual contact.

“This case is one involving family secrets,” Deputy District Attorney Leane Zainea said during opening statements at Maurice Hupper’s trial. “Secrets so strong that it silenced an entire family for years.”

Zainea told jurors that for years the victim would not talk about the sexual abuse that occurred in a “place where a child should feel the safest: in her own home.”

Defense attorney Lawrence Frier withheld his opening statements, which he may make later in the trial.

Hupper, 65, was arrested in March following an investigation by Knox County sheriff’s detectives that resulted in 294 charges, including gross sexual assaults and unlawful sexual contacts. The reason 253 charges were dropped was because the volume of counts was “unmanageable for purposes of trying the case,” Frier said.

Zainea would not comment on the reduction in charges.

Delores Hupper, 44, was arrested in March, shortly after her husband’s arrest. She was accused of 10 sexual offenses, including five gross sexual assaults and five unlawful sexual contacts. In exchange for her guilty plea to one count of unlawful sexual contact, she will receive a five-year sentencing cap if she cooperates with the state in the trial against her husband.

The 19 gross sexual assault and 22 unlawful sexual contact charges against Maurice Hupper include one count each of gross sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact with another female victim. A friend of his daughter’s is alleged to have been abused at age 12.

In presenting the prosecution’s case, Zainea detailed the life of a young woman who had been sexually abused since the age of 4. As the victim grew up, so did the level of abuse. What started as fondling advanced to touching of genitals and then to oral sex and intercourse as the daughter got older. The years of abuse culminated with a violent, forced sex act in February of this year and a pregnancy, Zainea said.

During some years, the sexual abuse happened two to three times a week, week after week, according to the victim’s testimony.

Over the years, the daughter wrote letters describing the sexual abuse by her father to teachers, a school principal and a guidance counselor.

However, when the state Department of Human Services would investigate, the victim would not cooperate, she said, because DHS questioned her in front of her father.

Hupper would often insist that his daughter stay home from school so he could have sex with her, the victim said, telling jurors that she felt helpless.

When the victim told her mother about the abuse by the father, “she didn’t believe me,” the young woman said.

During her testimony, the victim told jurors that the sexual activity had also included her mother and brothers.

According to the victim, when the sex act ended, Hupper would warn her not to tell anyone or that he would hurt her brothers.

Earlier this year, after telling her father she was pregnant, Hupper picked his daughter up at a friend’s house and brought her home. He dragged her into the house, ripped her clothes off and forcibly had sex with her, according to testimony.

About that time, the victim met a woman through a family friend. The woman had worked for DHS and told the victim that she knew about her past. Eventually, the victim wrote a letter to her new acquaintance, describing her ordeal and the woman brought her to the District Attorney’s Office.

During the trial, a taped telephone call to Maurice Hupper from his daughter, which had been set up by sheriff’s detectives, was played. The call was made to obtain statements from the father showing that he was having sex with his daughter.

In the tape, Hupper indicates that if his daughter were at home, he would have sex with her.

Since the arrests of Maurice and Delores Hupper, they have been in Knox County Jail unable to post bail. His bail is set at $50,000 single surety or $25,000 cash; her bail is $25,000 single surety or $5,000 cash.

Bail was continued on Delores Hupper and a pre-sentence investigation was ordered by Justice John Atwood.

The trial is expected to continue today.