Woman Testifies Her Missionary Dad Sexually Abused Her for Years

By Michael D. Abernethy
Times News
April 24, 2014

http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/top-news/woman-testifies-her-missionary-dad-sexually-abused-her-for-years-1.309991

A 41-year-old woman took the witness stand this week and alleged decades of sexual abuse by her father in locations around the world as the family traveled on mission trips.

She told her husband and a church friend about the abuse after her father, Emmett Thomas Cosier, 76, of Boyne City, Mich., allegedly raped her twice during a Christmas visit in Snow Camp in 2010. She and her husband went to the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office with the accusations in May 2011.

For years, the woman blocked out the events — even when they occurred after she was married and had children — she said. Under questioning Tuesday and Wednesday, she sometimes became confused about which incidents she was being asked about.

“I have a hard time keeping it all straight in my head,” she said Wednesday, before listing about a dozen ages, locations and circumstances when she recalls her father raping her.

Cosier is charged with first-degree rape, second-degree rape, attempted first-degree sex offense, two counts of second-degree sex offense and two counts of incest. He is only charged here with two incidents that allegedly occurred Dec. 19, 2010. His trial began Tuesday in Alamance County Superior Court and is expected to continue through next week.

Cosier is a retired missionary and ran a school in The Gambia, Africa. He and his wife founded The Good Seed Mission in 1985 and opened the Seeds of Truth Christian boarding school in The Gambia. The woman in the case spent most of her childhood in Africa. She testified Tuesday and Wednesday that abuse occurred throughout her childhood in Africa, Germany and at locations in Pennsylvania and Michigan.

On Dec. 19, 2010, she was living with her husband and children in missionary homes in Snow Camp. Her husband, a former German police officer, had also entered the ministry. Cosier and the woman’s mother had traveled from Michigan to Alamance County to spend Christmas with the family and were staying in a nearby apartment at the missionary homes. Twice that day, Cosier raped her in her bedroom, she said. On one occasion he held a knife to her and threatened to kill her, she testified. She said her husband, children and mother weren’t in the apartment at the time.

Those incidents occurred between attending a church service, having lunch, afternoon coffee and an evening Christmas party with the whole family together, she said.

The woman’s husband testified Thursday that he never suspected anything between his wife and her father and that he was initially confused when she told him about what had happened. At first, he said his wife’s memories were muddled but became clearer “like jigsaw pieces fitting together” as time went on. She was distraught and in tears for weeks after first describing the abuse in early 2011.

He noticed red marks around her neck the afternoon of Dec. 19. He told Alamance County Assistant Defense Attorney Paul Soderberg that there were times when his wife and her father could have been alone in the apartment that day.

But under cross-examination by defense attorney Don Dickerson, of Orange County, he couldn’t recall a timeline of that day or other days Cosier is accused of assaulting the woman. He couldn’t say when the family was together, when the Christmas party began, whether he cooked lunch for the family or when he took photos of Cosier on the floor with the children.

The husband waited until his wife was ready before they went to law enforcement in May 2011, he testified.

Testimony in the trial Wednesday also included several people involved with the missions and the family’s church. Superior Court Judge Henry Hight, of Vance County, ruled Wednesday not to allow testimony from one of the woman’s sisters who alleged that Cosier once touched her inappropriately. After hearing her testify outside the presence of the jury, Hight said her testimony wasn’t appropriate to be introduced in the trial and that her emotional reaction on the stand would have prejudiced jurors against Cosier.

Late Thursday, the woman’s psychological counselor, Annette Schuster, took the stand as an expert witness. She said the woman initially exhibited symptoms of sexual abuse, including nightmares, flashbacks and hyper-vigilance but had made progress and become more comfortable with herself since beginning therapy.

The trial will continue at 9:30 a.m. Friday in the Alamance County Historic Courthouse.