STARKVILLE — Two unexpected accusers were ready to take the stand today in the child molestation trial of Dane Davenport, the Vicksburg-based state trooper who faces charges here and in Warren County.

In addition to the now 15-year old who testified he was abused by Davenport in Oktibbeha County, the boy’s older brother and a new accuser from Warren County, who has said Davenport molested him perhaps 20 years ago, were among witnesses prosecution lawyers want to testify, Circuit Judge James Kitchens said Tuesday.

A new Mississippi Supreme Court ruling was at the crux of attorney arguments here Tuesday morning before Kitchens.

The decision, “Derouen v. State of Mississippi,” dated Nov. 20, gives judges discretion in allowing testimony in a sexual abuse case by accusers other than those for which the defendant is being tried. It eliminates the prohibition against allowing prior or other allegations of sexual abuse being heard.

Davenport, 46, is in the third day of a retrial on one count of fondling a child under the age of 16.

His first trial here in October was declared a mistrial by Kitchens after Davenport’s accuser testified to other instances of sexual abuse that were not allowed into evidence.

“In October this evidence was absolutely forbidden,” Kitchens told the court Tuesday when the jury had left the courtroom. “Since then, the Supreme Court has said that some may be admissible in these kinds of cases.”

Kitchens said he would review the Supreme Court decision and other relevant case law overnight and hear arguments early today with the jury out of the courtroom. Jurors were instructed to report at 8:30 for an early start to the day’s testimony, which was expected to conclude the state’s case and initiate the defense.

Davenport was also tried in Warren County in 2008 on four counts of sexual battery and five counts of fondling, charges brought by the two brothers. His trial in September ended in a mistrial when jurors reported they could not reach a verdict. It has been rescheduled for May 11.

In the Oktibbeha County retrial, the teen took the stand and testified that Davenport fondled him during a trip to Starkville to attend a Mississippi State football game.

The prosecution also put an expert witness on the stand, Madison County psychiatrist Dr. Wood Hiatt, who testified “to a reasonable degree of medical certainty” that the boy “exhibits the characteristics of a child that has been sexually abused.”

The boy was a month past his 14th birthday, he said, when Davenport committed the act, later telling the boy that if he told anyone, “People would think I was gay.” During the incident, he said, his mother unexpectedly came upon them, startling Davenport, who then acted like they were wrestling. He said he was afraid and confused, but broke down a week later and told his mother what had happened.

“I was really scared and didn’t know what to say,” the boy testified. He also told the court that it was not the first time Davenport had molested him. The first incident took place in 2003, when he was 9, he said.

He did not tell his mother or father, who are divorced, “because I was scared and confused. I didn’t know what people around me would think, what my family members would think,” he said.

In lengthy testimony frequently interrupted by attorneys for both sides, either objecting to a question or seeking a ruling for a potential line of questioning that required bench conferences with Kitchens, the boy’s mother testified that when she unexpectedly came upon Davenport with her son, apparently in the act of molesting him, she did not confront him at the time or call police because she was not sure what she saw and was “in shock” about it. About a week later, after she questioned her son repeatedly, he made the accusation against Davenport. The next day, she said, she reported it to authorities.

Defense attorney John Zelbst tried to undermine the credibility of both witnesses by highlighting inconsistencies and contradictions between their testimony Tuesday and previous statements and testimony they had given, both in the Starkville and Warren County mistrials. He characterized the mother as vindictive and having pressured the boy into “telling her what she wanted to hear.”

Zelbst also charged the boy frequently lied in the past and cast doubt on the boy’s story by pointing out assumptions and conclusions the boy had drawn when he could not know whether they were factual.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com.