Man Accused Of Molesting Girls At Mansfield Church Standing Trial After Nearly 2 Decades
UPDATE: Benjamin Cole, Who Groped Girls From Mansfield Church, Guilty Of 2 Counts Of Indecency With A Child
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) — The trial began on February 8 for Benjamin Cole, the man accused of molesting teens at a Mansfield church nearly two decades ago. He is charged with two counts of indecency with a child.
The two victims, now adults, first came forward about the alleged abuse in a 2018 interview with CBS 11 News.
"Really difficult," said Marybeth Arnold, describing the aftermath of speaking out. "I think if we knew going into this, I think it would have been harder to make that decision. But, we went into this feeling like we had no other choice, because while people hadn't protected us we now had a choice to protect other people."
Arnold and Amanda Hodson say they decided to open up about being molested after learning Cole had been convicted that year on charges of possession of child pornography and online solicitation of a minor. They say they realized then what happened to them weren't isolated incidents and that there could be other victims.
"I'm thankful that I get a chance to sit in court, staring him in the face and tell him what he did to me," said Marybeth Arnold before walking into court.
"Feeling really like, not lucky to be here, but we know that it was a really long process to get here," agreed Amanda Hodson.
Hodson was the first and only witness to take the stand on the first day of trial. She described growing up as a member of the Heritage Baptist Church in Mansfield, a tightly knit community of roughly 200 people who homeschooled their children, preached obedience to the church, and rarely socialized with outsiders.
Cole's family, she testified, joined the church when she was 10 years old, and grew close to her family -- even vacationing with them. When she was 14, she attended a church camp where Cole, then 20, served as a counselor. While at the camp, she told jurors, he first touched her by putting his hand on her leg.
Later, while communicating over AOL Instant Messenger, she said Cole began asking her to stand in front of the window of her home and remove certain pieces of clothing, while he watched from outside. She said, she tried to distance herself, but grew afraid.
In 2005, Hodson said, her older sister became engaged and Amanda, then 16, was tasked with serving as a chaperone while her sister visited with her fiancé in his apartment. Amanda testified, Cole, who was 22 by then, would be at the apartment, as well. It was there, she said, he groped her, forcing his hand down her pants.
"That's when he would start to make threats about how nobody was ever going to love me the way he loved me," she said.
She recalled the last time the two were alone together, she said, "He was asking me to do something I did not want to do, and I started getting upset," she said.
Cole, she said, grabbed her brother-in-law's gun. "That's when he said if I wasn't going to be with him then he was going to kill himself," she said.
Hodson said she became frantic and ran downstairs to her sister, who then left with her.
After speaking with her parents, Amanda said she was told to meet with the three pastors who formed the leadership at Heritage Baptist at the time. "I remember telling them there was physical contact that I did not want," she said. In response, she said, she was counseled on what she had done.
"It was essentially just talking about what I had done that made me deserve that. They told me it was because I was disobedient." As a result, she said, her parents removed clothing from her closet. "They said that everybody was going to know that it was my fault if I was wearing those clothes."
The already conservative dresses she'd worn, she said, were replaced with longer dresses with higher necklines. Amanda later left the church and became estranged from her parents.
Learning of Cole's arrest in 2018, she sent a message to Marybeth, who'd been a close childhood friend. "I said, 'I don't know if anything happened to you. But, I know what happened to me'," she recalled.
Marybeth, she said, confirmed to her she'd also had an experience with Cole. "We started talking about whether we could live with ourselves if we didn't say something," said Hodson.
The same day the pair interviewed with CBS 11 in 2018, she and Marybeth went to the Mansfield Police Department to make a report of abuse. The two sought charges against the church leaders, who they say failed to report suspicions of sexual assault of a child. Because of the statute of limitations, police said, they were unable to pursue a case against the church.
"For most people, church is a place where you to find community and feel safe. But that's not going to be the church that we hear about in this case. Thanks to one man," said a prosecutor in opening statements, pointing to Cole.
By the end of trial, he said, the jury will have heard from both victims, Hodson's sister, the detective on their case, and an expert in child sexual abuse dynamics -- such as victim grooming.
Defense attorney, Benson Varghese, though, warned the state won't be able to prove the allegations are true. "The question before you will be – has the state eliminated every reasonable doubt?" he said.
The trial of Benjamin Cole resumes Wednesday at 9:00 a.m.
