11-year-old alleged victim testifies in abuse trial

DARLINGTON — One of the alleged victims of a Darlington County man and woman accused of committing multiple crimes against children testified she initially thought the male suspect was “a very nice man.”

She said opinion changed after the suspect would come into her bedroom at night and fondle her.

Glenn Russell Lee, 59, was arrested in 2008 and is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, lewd act upon a minor and two counts of unlawful conduct toward a child.

Donna Marie Buie, 30, is charged with two counts of unlawful conduct toward a child. She is accused of using drugs in the presence of the two children.

The victim, Buie’s 11-year-old daughter, told Suzanne Mayes of the S.C. Commission on Prosecution Coordination, who is prosecuting the case, she lived with the two suspects from 2005 to 2007 at Lee’s home on Clara Road in Darlington County.

The girl said Lee, who she called “Dusty,” took her and other family members to the fair and swimming and said she thought he was “a very mice man” until he began to molest her.

“I’d wake up and he’ll be in my room with his hands in my pants,” she said. Mayes presented the girl with a large drawing of a girl and asked her to point out the body parts the suspect touched.

One of Lee’s employees accidentally walked in on the abuse, the child said.

The girl also testified she saw what she described as sexual acts between the suspects and several other women she didn’t know. She said she also told her mother about what Lee was doing, but her mother would dismiss it.

The child said her mother often “wasn’t in her right mind” when she lived with Lee.

“She’ll put white stuff in her nose,” the girl said, testifying she saw the suspects exchange the white powder for money given to them by visitors to the home.

The 11-year-old said the things she witnessed made her feel uncomfortable.
“I felt like (my mother) didn’t love me anymore and that she didn’t care,” she said.

CARE House of the Pee Dee Director Dr. Kathy Saunders testified she found no signs of sexual assault on the victim when she examined her on Nov. 14, 2007, three months after the girl’s last contact with the suspects.

This doesn’t necessarily mean the child wasn’t sexually battered, Saunders said. The vaginal area can heal itself with time, she said, adding that the acts committed might not have caused injury.

Jurors also viewed a recording of a forensic interview done at the CARE House.

The interview showed the 11-year-old talking about the case and what happened with CARE House forensic interviewer Debbie Elliott, who also testified during the trial.

The jury also heard testimony from Stewart Cottingham, a U.S. Marshal working with Operation Intercept, the law enforcement team that captured Buie and Lee in February 6, 2008. The two were fugitives wanted by Darlington County deputies in connection with the case for which they are now being tried. Lee was captured in Sumter County; Buie, in a camper in Clarendon County.

Cottingham said Operation Intercept got involved with the case in at the request of Darlington County sheriff’s deputies.

At the time of Lee’s arrest, task force officers searched his car and found nitroglycerin tablets filled with illegal drugs, Cottingham said.

“In addition to this, we found a gigantic penis pump in his vehicle,” Cottingham said.

Officers found a camera containing non-sexual photographs of children, marijuana, illicit photographs of the suspects and other women and another penis pump, too, Cottingham said.

Fourth Circuit Court Judge Michael Baxley is presiding over the trial.

Assistant 4th Circuit Solicitor Patti McKenzie is prosecuting the case with Mayes, who was asked to assist in the prosecution because she focuses on cases involving child victims, Fourth Circuit Solicitor Will Rogers said.

Lee is being represented by Hartsville attorney Paul Cannarella, while 4th Circuit Public Defender Rick Jones is representing Buie.