Schlensker hearing postponed

The Union Democrat
June 20, 2016

http://www.uniondemocrat.com/localnews/4446218-151/schlensker-hearing-postponed

A district court judge on Monday postponed setting a new trial date for a woman whose conviction on charges of unlawful sex with a boy in her church youth group was overturned on appeal.

Ember Dawn Schlensker, 32, appeared before Judge Donald Segerstrom with her attorney, Michael Chastaine, of the Sacramento area.

Chastaine said he only recently became Schlensker’s attorney and asked for more time before a trial date is set.

Segerstrom rescheduled the hearing for 1:30 p.m. July 18 in Department 1.

Segerstrom also told Chastaine that, because the trial was first heard in Department 2, he will likely schedule it in Department 1, over which Segerstrom presides.

The first trial, held in 2013, took about two weeks.

In February, the 5th District Court of Appeal overturned her conviction.

Schlensker, a former youth leader at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Sonora, was accused of having a sexual relationship with a boy from August 2009 to March 2012, starting when she was about 25 and the boy was about 15.

She was convicted of 27 felony counts of unlawful sex with the boy and sentenced in January 2014 to six years in prison. She has remained free on bond for the past two years pending her appeal, which was filed the same day she was sentenced.

A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court ruled the trial court erred by restricting testimony of a defense expert’s opinion that Schlensker suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and rape trauma syndrome.

The boy was 18 when the case was tried in Sonora, and he testified he met Schlensker when he was about 13 at a church camp in Santa Cruz, according to court records.

Schlensker’s defense attorneys have maintained her innocence and, in her first trial, Schlensker testified the boy began coming on to her in August 2009 and forcibly tried to kiss her when they were sitting on the couch watching television.

She also testified that the boy raped her on different occasions between August 2009 and February 2012.

Schlensker testified she attempted to commit suicide once in 2010 and once in 2011.

Schlensker also described her impoverished upbringing and being subjected to sexual abuse beginning at a young age. She said she became pregnant via rape and gave the child up for adoption. Therapist Linda Barnard testified as an expert on post-traumatic stress disorder and rape trauma syndrome.

According to the 5th District Court of Appeal, the trial court in Sonora restricted Barnard’s testimony. The appellate judges said this prevented the jury from properly considering Schlensker’s PTSD and RTS diagnoses in relation to the mental state necessary to convict her of committing lewd acts against the boy, as well as the mental state required for her defense of duress to all the charged offenses.

Eventually, the boy told his mother about his relationship with Schlensker but made her promise not to press charges. After the boy told his mother, his mother told his father and, months later, someone told the police.

In January 2013, the Tuolumne County District Attorney filed 45 counts charging Schlensker with various sexual offenses against the boy between Aug. 1, 2009, and March 1, 2012.

The 5th District Court of Appeal opinion means Schlensker is no longer convicted of anything in this case.

Her attorney told Segerstrom on Monday he expects the retrial to take about three weeks.