Defendant testifies in Modesto sexual abuse trial

A former police officer and college instructor testified in his trial Thursday, denying he ever sexually abused two underage Modesto girls who claim the defendant molested them while they were spending the night at his home.

Francisco “Frank” Jose Drumond is charged with two counts of committing lewd acts with a child. He is accused of molesting the two girls, who were friends of his daughter. They are referred to in court as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2.

Drumond’s testimony conflicted on several points with what the girls told police. He also said he never touched the girls inappropriately.

Jane Doe 1 has testified that Drumond molested her in August 2009. She said they were watching a movie when Drumond started massaging her. She testified that the touching slowly escalated to Drumond slipping his hand inside her bikini bottoms.

She told the jury that Drumond woke her up the following morning and asked her into his home office. She said Drumond told her, “Last night was cool, but you can’t tell anyone about it.”

Drumond testified that the incident Jane Doe 1 described did not happen, and that he never made her promise to keep silent about anything.

He said the girl had been at his home four to six times in the 10 days before the allegations surfaced and never acted strange or disturbed around him. “She was normal, happy,” he told the jury.

About a week later, Jane Doe 1 joined Drumond and his daughter on a road trip to the Bay Area. They were going to drop off a teenage German exchange student at the airport. Jane Doe 2 also went along on the road trip.

The exchange student, a girl, had lived at the Drumond home for about three weeks. She never was questioned by police because Detective Steven Stanfield said the student already had returned to Germany by the time the allegations were reported.

Stanfield testified that investigators received a letter from the student exchange organization, and that nothing in it indicated the German student knew of any wrongdoing at the Drumond home.

After dropping off the exchange student, the group stopped for dinner. Jane Doe 2 told investigators that Drumond made sexually suggestive comments about a dessert, and he later watched her twice go to the bathroom by the side of the road on the drive back to Modesto.

Drumond said that didn’t happen. He said he never made any suggestive comments about the dessert. He said the restaurant staff brought them the complimentary small cake after the girls lied about it being his daughter’s birthday.

He said Jane Doe 2 asked once that he pull over the vehicle to use the restroom because it was urgent. Drumond testified that Jane Doe 1 and 2 got out of the vehicle, leaving the back door open. The interior light stayed on, which made it impossible to see outside, he said.

Jane Doe 2 told investigators she rode in the front passenger seat of Drumond’s Chevrolet Tahoe, and that the two other girls were in the back seat. She said Drumond rubbed her arms, legs and across the top of her chest throughout the drive back to Modesto from the Bay Area.

Drumond testified that his daughter rode in the front passenger seat during the entire ride home, and that Jane Doe 1 and 2 were in the back seat. As they arrived in Modesto, Drumond said, he asked the girls who would be dropped off first. He said Jane Doe 1 asked him to drive by her house because she needed to pick up clothes to spend the night at the Drumonds’ home.

Jane Doe 2 told investigators that she and Jane Doe 1 were on both sides of Drumond on the living room couch that night, watching TV, while the defendant’s daughter was asleep on the other end of the couch. It was the same couch where Jane Doe 1 says she was molested by Drumond a week earlier.

Drumond rubbed Jane Doe 2’s foot while also massaging Jane Doe 1’s shoulder, according to Jane Doe 2. She said the defendant later touched her upper inner thigh before groping her buttocks.

The defendant testified that nothing like that happened. He said he was working in his office before joining the girls in the living room, and that all three girls were awake watching a movie.

“I was sitting in the La-Z-Boy chair, then I got up and went back to my work,” Drumond said in court. He also said the recliner was about 3 feet away from the sectional couch, which also has a recliner, but that he never sat on the couch with the girls that night.

Jane Doe 2 told investigators that she went to the bathroom three times that night with Jane Doe 1 to explain what Drumond was doing to her. She said the girls returned to their positions on the couch twice, before hiding in Drumond’s daughter’s bedroom after the third trip to the bathroom.

Drumond testified that the girls used the bathroom only once that night, and that he wasn’t keeping track of where they were going.

The defendant resigned from his job as a reserve Ripon police officer days after police showed up at his Modesto home to investigate the claims of lewd acts with the teenage girls. He previously worked as a police officer in Modesto and Patterson.

He was arrested during a staff meeting Aug. 28, 2009, at the Modesto Junior College East Campus, where he taught criminal justice.

Testimony in the trial ended Thursday afternoon with Drumond on the witness stand. The attorneys were expected to present their closing arguments to the jury Friday.

This story was originally published March 12, 2015 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Defendant testifies in Modesto sexual abuse trial."