Boy barred from testifying

The prosecution suffered a setback yesterday in the trial of a rich North Wildwood motel owner accused of sexually abusing young boys on overseas trips, when a young witness couldn't identify the defendant.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Levy asked the boy, who was from Moldova and wore a stern expression, to stand up and identify the defendant.

Levy told the boy to look all around the courtroom and then asked, "Let me know if you see that person."

After the boy glared at the defendant, Anthony Mark Bianchi, for several seconds, he said: "I don't recognize."

It was a stunning development and immediately prompted a sidebar - out of earshot of the jury - among prosecutors, defense lawyers and U.S. District Judge Bruce W. Kauffman.

Prosecutors asked if the boy could at least tell what happened to him.

Defense lawyer Mark Geragos said it would be "highly prejudicial" to Bianchi if the boy testified further.

"This is very unusual. I've never had it happen before," Kauffman said, adding that it "would not be appropriate or fair" if the boy were to testify further.

"You have an accused and the accuser can't identify the accused. He shouldn't be allowed to testify about what happened," the judge said.

Prosecutors then agreed to dismiss the witness.

The feds have flown eight boys from Moldova whom Bianchi is alleged to have molested or attempted to molest to testify against him.

Prosecutors say Bianchi is a child predator who went to Moldova and Romania between 2003 and 2005 and sexually abused his victims, all of whom were underage boys at the time of the alleged incidents.

Things went a bit smoother for the government earlier in the day.

An 18-year-old Moldovan youth, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, told jurors that Bianchi, 44, performed oral sex on him when he was 16.

The boy spoke through a translator.

He told Levy that Bianchi invited him to his room at a boarding house in a rural Moldovan village where Bianchi was staying and the two played a game.

He said Bianchi started to brush his hair. "And then what happened?" Levy asked.

"He pulled my pants down and started to suck my penis," the boy said.

After the encounter, the boy testified, he stayed overnight and Bianchi gave him Moldovan currency worth about $16 the next morning.

He testified that Bianchi subsequently invited him to his room, offered him a soccer ball and tried to perform oral sex on him again. But the teenager rejected the offer and left the room.

Under withering cross-examination by Geragos, the boy said he "was ashamed" when Geragos asked him to explain why he gave conflicting accounts to Moldovan authorities and during a related trial in Moldova.

When Geragos said the boy had told a villager recently that nothing happened between him and Bianchi, the boy snapped: "Do I have to tell the whole village about it?"

"Well, you're telling the whole world about it now," Geragos said.

A second 18-year-old Moldovan youth testified that Bianchi called him and asked if he could come over to the youth's house.

The youth testified that he invited Bianchi over and they went bowling. Later, Bianchi had dinner with his family.

He said Bianchi asked to sleep in his bed, but when Bianchi began touching the boy's leg and rubbing his back, he became "very uncomfortable," left the bed and slept with his brother.

The youth said Bianchi told him in the morning "he was disappointed I was not nice to him" and left Moldovan currency worth more than $32 before leaving the house. *