Jordan trial continues, closing arguments to take place today
The trial of a former Starkville Police Officer facing five counts of enticement of a child ended its second day with no verdict, following testimony from the defendant.
Charles Jordan gave testimony in his case in Mississippi District 16 Circuit Court in Starkville Thursday, and was cross-examined by his own counsel, Marty Haug, and by District 16 Assistant District Attorney Trina Davidson Brooks, who is the case’s primary prosecutor.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday morning.
Jordan is accused of sexting the victim, who was 16 years old at the time of the incident. While a Starkville Police Officer, Jordan was dispatched to a call in Camelot Apartments dealing with the victim and her sister running away from home
on Nov.18, 2016. He found the two sisters at their grandmother’s unit in the same complex. The next day, another runaway call was made for the sisters after they left their grandmother’s house. This time, a runaway juvenile report was filed.
He later began texting the victim starting on Feb. 15, 2017, with the texts growing more lewd and including pictures and videos of Jordan’s genitalia and him engaging in sexual acts. The conversation between the two continued until March 10, 2017, when the victim stopped responding to Jordan’s messages.
Jordan later showed up at a different dwelling where the victim and her family were living in June 2017, saying he was called to a disturbance in the vicinity. However, all sources but Jordan said no one had called the police. The victim then told her mother about Jordan’s advances toward her, and then went to the SPD with the accusations.
Much of the discussion during Jordan’s cross-examination revolved around whether he knew the victim was underage at the time he was sending the lewd texts. Jordan claimed that the victim had told him that she was 19 and attended Mississippi State University. However, a runaway juvenile report was filed not long after his second contact with the victim.
Jordan also claimed that there were times when she asked him to send pictures or other texts.
“She never told me not to,” Jordan said.
He claimed he knew she attended Starkville High School at some point in March 2017 after one of her family members came forward and told him, but believed that she attended MSU prior to that point.
Discussion also centered around the victim’s Facebook profile, where her birthday was listed as being in 1997, rather than her actual birth year of 2000. However, during crossexamination Wednesday, the victim claimed the profile in question was actually made by the father of her child’s ex girlfriend to misrepresent her. Circuit Court Judge Jim Kitchens, who is presiding over the trial decided not to allow printed pages showing the profile into the jury room due to the concerns over its authenticity.
Although the questioning of Jordan remained civil, both sides raised objections to each other’s questions several times through the process.
Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office Operations Captain Brett Watson was also questioned. Watson, while a lieutenant, interviewed both Jordan and the victim during investigation of the case and removed data from cell phone’s belonging to both Jordan and the victim.
Watson was able to remove both the texts and the lewd videos and photos from the victims phone, and was able to remove the same videos from Jordan’s phone. However, he was unable to remove any texts from Jordan’s Phone. Watson handled the investigation due to Jordan being part of the SPD.
“That was the crux of our questioning, did he know at the time (that she was underage), and his answer is that he thought she was 19,” Watson said. “His answer to me was always that he thought she was 19.”