It was a late spring day with a temperature of 64 degrees when a Lynnwood woman heard a child screaming from the porch next door.
The boy, who had wet his pants, was either being cleaned off or punished, according to defense and prosecutor versions of the June events, a Snohomish County Superior Court jury was told Tuesday.
The prosecution claims the hosing of the screaming and pleading child went on for five minutes. The defense maintains it was for 10 or 20 seconds, and the boy was throwing a tantrum.
Jurors will be asked to sort out the truth in the trial of Kristoffer Wiggers, 33, of Mountlake Terrace, who is accused of second-degree assault.
He is charged with torturing the child after the boy interrupted him while he was working on a college paper, deputy prosecutor Janice Albert said.
The prosecution alleges that the child was hosed off and left outside shivering in a fetal position for about 25 minutes because "he was an animal. … That’s what his father told him," Albert said in opening statements.
The boy "pleaded for his father to stop," Albert said. "His father said, ‘I’m glad you’re cold.’ "
Neighbors heard the commotion and became alarmed.
Rachel Corns testified that she had guests, so she went back inside her home to tend to a meal. When she returned to the backyard, she continued to hear the boy crying.
She inched up to a fence between the properties, climbed onto a rock wall and peeked through a knothole. She said she saw a child she didn’t know being hit in the face with a stream of water, apparently from a garden hose.
"I was worried for the boy," Corns testified.
The prosecution has it all wrong, defense lawyer Kathleen Kyle said. Wiggers was cleaning his son off, left a couple of dry towels and told the boy to return inside when he had dried himself off, she said.
"Kristoffer Wiggers did not intend to hurt his son," she told jurors. "In fact, he did not hurt his son."
She conceded that the incident may not be a "proud parenting moment, but it is not a crime."
Wiggers was taken into custody immediately by police, Kyle said.
"Yes, a concerned neighbor called police. Yes, concerned police officers arrived," she told jurors. "He was arrested in front of his child."
Kyle told jurors they’ll see "the evidence won’t support the charge."
Wiggers could face two years or more in prison if convicted.
At the time of the hosing, Wiggers had custody of the boy. The boy’s mother, who lives apart from Wiggers, now has custody, prosecutors said.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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