Another mistrial declared in sex abuse case
SANDPOINT — Another mistrial has been declared in the case of a Bonner County attorney accused of molesting an underage girl, according U.S. District Court documents.
A federal jury in San Diego could not agree on the guilt or innocence of David Charles Jacquot. A mistrial was declared on Thursday, court documents indicate.
“Four people couldn’t make up their mind and eight people wanted to convict,” said Gordon Hodge, a government witness who is convinced of Jacquot’s guilt.
It’s the second time jurors have deadlocked in Jacquot’s case. A mistrial was declared last October due to a hung jury, clearing the way for another trial this month.
It’s unclear if Jacquot, 49, will be retried a third time. Hodge said it’s up to the alleged victim and federal prosecutors to decide whether to seek a third trial against Jacquot, who is also facing federal tax fraud charges in southern California.
As with the first trial, it attracted no attention from the media in San Diego.
Jacquot was indicted by a grand jury in 2010, after a mysterious fire destroyed his home in Vay. The fire occurred shortly after the alleged victim told authorities she had been molested by Jacquot over an extended period of time.
Jacquot’s wife and son were in the home when the fire started, according to court documents. Jacquot was found in an adjacent field and had no soot on him, prosecutors said.
Jacquot was charged taking the girl to San Diego on several occasions in 2006 for the purposes of criminal sexual activity. She was between the ages of 15 and 16 at the time.
Jacquot has vigorously denied the allegations and the defense argued at trial that they were maliciously fabricated by the teen.
After the first mistrial, the defense moved to keep a host of incriminating evidence from being heard by jurors. The defense sought to block testimony of the suspicious fire, pornographic materials and evidence of ongoing molestation.
“So much has been excluded,” Hodge said of the evidence kept from jurors.