2 girls accuse stepfather in sex abuse testimony

Two young girls took the stand Tuesday to tell a Broward jury that a man they looked to as a father betrayed their trust by sexually abusing them in 2013.

The girls, now ages 11 and 14, said they lived with Wilson Hernandez, 52, who is now facing life in prison if convicted of multiple counts of lewd or lascivious molestation.

Both girls told Assistant State Attorney Kerrie Harper that Hernandez touched them on the breasts and between their legs on multiple occasions. Each said Hernandez made them touch his penis.

The girls spoke in Spanish, their testimony translated for the jury by an interpreter. They said they trusted Hernandez enough to call him “dad.” Their mother, who was married to Hernandez at the time and is scheduled to testify in the case, was overpowered when she tried to intervene, according to police reports.

Their names are being withheld because of the nature of the allegations. Hernandez and the girls’ mother have since divorced.

Defense lawyer Katherine Lopez, in her opening statement, said the girls’ mother was the real culprit, concocting the story of abuse to force Hernandez out of her Pembroke Pines home without risking her status as an immigrant. The mother and her daughters were born in Colombia.

But a second prosecutor, Patyl Oflazian, told the jury that Hernandez admitted to the abuse in an interview with investigators in late July 2013.

“The defendant would bathe with the two girls,” Oflazian said. “The girls would watch each other being sexually abused. And for those months, their mother knew it. [Hernandez] convinced their mother these acts were normal and the family should have no censorship, that they should be naked.”

It was not clear from Tuesday’s testimony or from opening statements how investigators became aware of the allegations.

Lopez promised jurors they would hear no testimony about DNA, blood or other evidence proving the alleged abuse even took place.

The trial resumes Wednesday before Broward Circuit Judge Jeffrey Levenson.