Fort Collins – A Larimer County jury today acquitted attorney William J. Hunsaker Jr. of four charges of sexually abusing two Ft. Collins children and was deadlocked on two other charges of sexual abuse.
The jury’s decisions surprised most people familiar with the case because both the mother and one of the children testified in graphic detail how Hunsaker had sex with the girl twice. After nearly four days of tabloid-style testimony against him, Hunsaker made the unorthodox decision to testify in his own defense. He then claimed resolutely that he never touched either of the children during the two sexual encounters he had had with their mother.
“Everyone watching this trial thought it was a slam-dunk for the prosecution,” said defense attorney Joseph “Andy” Gavaldon of Ft. Collins. “But when I got the sense that the jury was willing to look beyond the lewdness and nastiness of the trial and listen to me, then I thought I had a chance.”
The Larimer County District Attorney’s office immediately declared that Hunsaker, 34, will be retried on the two counts that hung up the jury. He also will be tried criminally on violating his bail bond.
Hunsaker was charged with sexually violating a 9-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl, whose mother he had met on an Internet chat room in January, 2003. He spent one night with the family in their Ft. Collins apartment in February, 2003, and another night with them in a motel room in Thornton in March, 2003.
