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	Lawyers Wrap up Swami Case By Eric Dexheimer The Statesman March 3, 2011 http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/investigative/entries/2011/03/03/lawyers_wrap_up_swami_case.html Hays County prosecutors and attorneys for Prakashanand Saraswati, the Hindu guru charged with molesting two underage girls in the 1990s, both rested their cases Thursday morning. The attorneys closed their arguments after District Judge Charles Ramsay refused to allow defense lawyers call an expert witness to testify about false allegations in sexual abuse cases. The expert, from Waco, was able to cite studies of false allegations in child custody cases, but not specifically in instances when adults years later claim they were abused as children. Prakashanand, known to his devotees as Shree Swamiji, is the founder and spiritual leader of the Barsana Dham ashram in Driftwood. In April 2008, he was charged with 20 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact based on the accounts of two women who said he kissed and fondled them in the mid-1990s, when they were teenagers. A third woman also claimed she was groped, but too much time had elapsed to bring charges under the statute of limitations. Testifying in court, the women described specific instances when and where the alleged incidents occurred. But throughout the nearly two-week trial, Prakashanand's lawyers also called witnesses who raised questions about the womens' memory of crucial details, such as the existence and placement of furniture in the guru's quarters. The defense attorneys also implied the women acted together in an effort to "destroy" the ashram. The jury is scheduled to reconvene tomorrow, when prosecutors and defense lawyers will present their closing arguments in the case.
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