A Pagosa Springs man’s trial began this week after he was arrested in June 2018 for allegedly sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl in Bayfield.
According to authorities, Rodney Keller, 53, was invited by an ex-girlfriend to play cards and have drinks at her female friend’s house in Bayfield on June 2, 2018.
At the end of the night, the owner of the house, and mother of the alleged victim, offered to let Keller spend the night. Keller was supposedly living out of his car in Pagosa Springs.
The next morning, the child woke up before her mother and found Keller on the couch. Authorities say Keller spent the morning with the child and eventually gestured for the child to follow him into a guest bedroom where he sexually assaulted her.
The girl told her mother about the assault later in the day. Investigators with the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office and Bayfield Marshal’s Office questioned Keller the same day, but he denied the allegations.
Keller was a registered sex offender. He was arrested after being recognized on “America’s Most Wanted” for sexual assault on a child in 2008, a charge to which he plead guilty.
District Attorney Reid Stewart told jurors they will hear from the 2008 victim, who was also 8 years old at the time, as well as another victim who says Keller sexually assaulted her in 2007 when she was 6 years old.
“At the end of this trial, we’re going to ask you to hold him accountable,” Reid told jurors.
Defense attorney Kenneth Pace, representing Keller, said the allegations made against Keller are “horrific.”
Pace said the child was looking for attention and made the story up.
“She wants more attention,” Pace said. “It is hard to believe a child would make up (this story). This child did.”
Pace said there is a lack of physical evidence to convict Keller, and he said police were biased against him in their investigation. He also said a lesson at school on “good” and “bad” touches “put the idea in her head” of sexual assault.
“Her story has changed over time,” he said.
The girl was the first witness to take the stand at Friday’s hearing. She said Keller sexually assaulted her in the guest room and told her not to tell anyone.
“(But) I did. I did the right thing,” she testified. “ ... I was assaulted.”
Keller’s trial is scheduled to resume Monday and continue through Nov. 1 in 6th Judicial District Court in La Plata County.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
