Golden – As a pornographic video played, a Wheat Ridge teacher took photos of a 14-year-old student with his pants pulled down, the boy testified in court Monday.
“I was feeling helpless, just scared, small, tiny,” the student, now 17, recalled on the first day of Marshall Adam Walker’s trial in Jefferson County District Court.
Walker, 33, who taught eighth-grade science at Everitt Middle School, is charged with 55 counts of sexual exploitation of a child, enticement of a child and unlawful sexual contact. He has been fired.
Walker waived his right to a jury trial and is bring tried by Judge Jane Tidball. Walker’s attorney, Harvey Steinberg, told the court that a jury could be upset “by the highly sensitive nature” of the charges.
Prosecutor Lori Tolle said Walker victimized three eighth-grade boys between 1997 and 2006 by befriending them and taking them on outings.
Then through “manipulation, betrayal and exploitation,” Walker would offer them things such as a pearl-handled handgun, a shotgun, hunting attire, movies and trips for ice cream.
Walker referred to the offers as “dares,” Tolle said, which were to be repaid by pulling down their pants so he could take photos and videos, some of which were 40 minutes long.
Steinberg said Walker never requested or suggested sexual contact, and never touched them or asked the boys to touch him.
“When the children said, ‘No,’ that was the end of it,” Steinberg said.
The student testifying Monday said Walker had taken him to a shooting range and then returned to the teacher’s room in Walker’s parents’ basement. There the boy was offered a deck of cards with pictures of naked women and a duck call – to convince him to pose for the photos.
Each time, the boy said he told Walker he didn’t want to pose. Then Walker said the student had failed a test and said he’d raise the grade to a B, the boy testified.
“I needed that grade on that test, so I told him, ‘OK,”‘ the boy said.
It would be three years before the boy told his parents, saying he was jolted into confiding the incident after watching a movie that has a scene of an older man taking photos of a boy.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
