Sex-tourism defense: Weigh evidence, not emotion

A wealthy Chester County lawyer facing sex-tourism charges effectively replaced his victim's parents, taking the teenage Russian ballet dancer into his home, a federal prosecutor said yesterday.

"That way he gained complete psychological and emotional control over the child," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Morgan-Kelly said during closing arguments in the trial of Kenneth Schneider, 46, of Berwyn.

The jury weighing Schneider's fate later deliberated for two hours without reaching a verdict. Deliberations were to resume this morning.

Morgan-Kelly said Schneider had sex with the boy in Russia in 2000 and 2001 "because that's where [he] thought he could get away with it."

The alleged victim, Roman Zavarov, now 24, married and a professional ballet dancer, testified last week that Schneider had oral and/or anal sex with him three and four times a week when he was 14 and 15 years old.

Schneider flatly denied it during testimony Wednesday.

Yesterday, Morgan-Kelly recounted for jurors how Schneider, then 34, offered to let Zavarov, then 12, live with him in his Moscow apartment after he had been expelled from the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in 1998.

Zavarov's parents had fallen behind on room and board payments. The boy was re-enrolled but could not live in the dorm and commuting was not feasible.

Morgan-Kelly said that Schneider and Zavarov lived together and that he provided the boy with shelter, food, clothing and toys and took him on trips.

She suggested that his motives were not benevolent.

"Ask yourself why a 34-year-old man about whom you've heard no testimony about a boyfriend, girlfriend, significant other; no testimony that he had children; a single man allegedly working long hours, why would he want to spend his only free time to bring into his home a 12-year-old boy . . . whom he did not know?" the prosecutor asked.

Authorities allege that Schnei-der had an illicit sexual relationship with Zavarov from 1998 to 2004. He is accused of traveling for the purpose of engaging in sex with a minor and transporting a person for criminal sexual conduct between Aug. 22, 2000, and Nov. 22, 2001.

Defense attorney Joseph Green Jr. asked jurors to decide the case on "evidence" and not "emotions."

Green said two witnesses in the case - Schneider's former housekeeper, Ludmila Kozireva, and a ballet instructor, Tatiana Dokukina - both testified that they had seen nothing improper occur between Schneider and Zavarov.

Kozireva lived across the hall from Schneider in the first apartment he and Zavarov shared. When they later moved to a larger apartment, Dokukina looked after the youngster when Schneider was away on business.

"If there was any evidence to the contrary, I suggest you would know about it," Green said.

He told the jury that Kozireva made breakfast and got Zavarov off to school each morning.

"If that kind of horrific conduct was going on at night in this apartment, you don't think [Kozireva] would have suspected something?" Green asked.

"She told you that she knew this had never happened," Green said.

In rebuttal, Morgan-Kelly said it was not surprising that Kozireva or Dokukina would have been unaware of alleged sexual abuse: Kozireva didn't stay at the apartment at night, and Dokukina was there only when Schneider was away on business. (Zavarov testified that the alleged abuse occurred at night.)

"Child sexual abuse doesn't occur in front of an audience. It occurs behind closed doors," Morgan-Kelly said. "And the only way for it to happen is if the predator gets access alone to the child. And what better access than to have a child move into your apartment and live with you alone every night."