Chad Curtis, left, appears in Barry County District Court in Hastings, Mich. for a probable cause hearing Friday, June 22, 2012. At right is his attorney David Dodge. The former major league baseball player is accused of molesting two teens at Lakewood High School. (Chris Clark | MLive.com)

HASTINGS, MI – Moments after Chad Curtis allegedly molested her, a 16-year-old girl was leaving the windowless high school weight room where she said the assault occurred, but stopped when the former major leaguer asked her to pray with him.

“I didn’t want to say ‘No, I don’t want to pray,’” the now 18-year-old said Monday, Aug. 12 during testimony in Barry County Circuit Court. “Prayer is always good.”

The girl testified that she was alone with 44-year-old Curtis in the secluded Lakewood High School weight room on Labor Day of 2011 when a training session to work on hip flexor exercises turned into him suddenly kissing her breast and molesting her.

It was the second time he had allegedly molested her. Earlier in the summer of 2011, she said he grabbed her breasts in the guise of a massage.

She said each time she believed the man she looked up to as a former professional athlete and Christian role model, when he said he would never do it again.

She also feared the effect her reporting the incident would have on Curtis’ family, especially his daughter with whom the alleged victim had become friends.

“I thought about (his daughter) and how she looked up to her dad,” the girl testified. “His family didn’t do anything wrong, so I wasn’t going to say anything.”

Curtis is on trial today, charged with six counts of criminal sexual conduct with this girl and two others, all at the high school where the former outfielder served as a substitute teacher and volunteered as a weight-trainer.



Related: Prosecutors say Chad Curtis sent many text messages to alleged teen sex assault victims

Assistant Barry County Prosecutor Christopher Ellsworth is working to convince a jury that Curtis used his position and access to the 15 and 16-year-old girls in order to victimize them.

Over the course of the trial, which is expected to last more than a week, Ellsworth said he plans to present the three victims in the case and two others who say Curtis molested them, but were not part of the formal charges.

Defense attorney David Dodge said he will present more than 30 witnesses, along with physical evidence and video recordings from the school that will shed doubt on the accusations.

He said the accusations stem from a group of students who have been influenced to inflate incidents that were part of a normal, if intense, training regime to become something untoward and even criminal.

He said charter witnesses will testify that Curtis had outstanding morals and was not the “demon” that the girls now claim him to be.

He said part of Curtis’ training as a former big leaguer was that people have to play through injuries. He said many times that means massaging sensitive areas like the buttocks in order to release lactic acid build-up in the muscles.

“If you’re playing for the Detroit Tigers or the New York Yankees and you get an injury, you don’t get to lie in bed,” Dodge told the jury.

But the alleged victim testifying Monday said there is no justification for the way Curtis used his hands on her, even though she initially tried to convince herself there was.

She said after praying with Curtis, she once again started to leave and he then asked her if she was virgin and “Did you enjoy any of that?” When she said she did not, he told her it was good because then she will know what to do if she ever got in a similar situation with a boy.

Testimony continues Tuesday, Aug. 13. Curtis faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted.

E-mail Barton Deiters: bdeiters@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/GRPBarton