Don't take fondling lightly, D.A. tells jurors

Three teenage girls yesterday told a Philadelphia jury of walking to or from school as 13-year-old eighth-graders two years ago and being approached by a man who made small talk before grabbing either their breasts or butts.

The man accused of grabbing them, Aquan Spearman, 23, whom each said identified himself as "Q," sat at the defense table listening as the girls described his beard and mustache, his demeanor and how he appeared much older than they.

Spearman, of Olney, is in custody, having failed to post 10 percent of a $50,000 bail.

He faces three counts of indecent assault and numerous related charges in the three incidents, which allegedly happened between December 2007 and January 2008 near Jay Cooke Elementary, the Olney school the girls attended at the time.

In her opening argument, Assistant District Attorney Chesley Lightsey urged the jury not to downplay a grope.

"We are talking about three young girls, 13-year-olds in their school uniforms in the area of their school," she said.

"This is not you or I being touched. These are young girls being touched and he had no right to do it."

Defense attorney Rosemary Zeccardi, in her opening statement and while cross-examining the girls, focused on contradictions between statements they initially gave to police and what they said at a preliminary hearing and yesterday on the witness stand.

She contended that the girls were friends who aligned their stories and failed to immediately tell school officials, parents and police of what they said happened.

"Listen to these girls," Zeccardi told the jurors. "Judge them as you would any other witness . . . If you do that you will come back at the end of this trial with a not-guilty verdict."

The first girl to testify said she first met Spearman at 13th and Courtland streets as she walked from a corner store. Spearman asked how old she was then told her not to tell anyone that he had talked with her, she said.

Walking from school days later, she saw Spearman again. "He stopped me and asked if I remembered who he was, then he grabbed my breast," the girl said.

When Lightsey asked how she felt, the girl said: "Scared that something else would happen."

The second girl testified that Spearman approached her on Broad Street near Wyoming Avenue after school, asked for her name and phone number and asked her to go with him to a nearby carryout restaurant.

She said she went with him "just to get him away from me." At the restaurant they exchanged numbers, she said, and while leaving he grabbed her butt. She quickly crossed the street.

The third girl told the court that on her way to school, Spearman approached and asked her to come with him. When she refused, he reached under her skirt and grabbed her butt, she said.

Spearman also will face trial for an alleged rape.