Ohio News *cue Dueling Bangos* -- Unofficial Chris Cornell Forum

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Date Posted: 13:44:33 04/14/06 Fri
Author: Jes
Subject: Ohio News *cue Dueling Bangos*

Surrogacy girl's idea, Goff says
Defendant says teen was determined to give birth
By Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal staff writer
John Goff explained to a jury Thursday the surrogacy contract he made with his 16-year-old stepdaughter.

He would supply the semen, her mother would bring it to her in a syringe, and Shenna Grimm would inject herself.

This would happen for just one monthly cycle, he said. If the teen failed to get pregnant, the process would be discontinued.

If it succeeded, it was an act of God. And Goff and his wife would raise the child, while Grimm would have unlimited visitation rights, he said.

Testifying Thursday in his rape and sexual battery trial, Goff said the insemination process was the solution to his stepdaughter's relentless pursuit of motherhood.

``There was a verbal contract,'' Goff told the jury. Shenna ``wanted a child, and we acquiesced.''

A jury probably will begin today deciding whether to believe Goff's account or that of Grimm, who testified this week that her stepfather threatened her with a gun if she did not agree to be inseminated and provide to Goff the child her mother could not.

Closing arguments are expected today before a jury and Summit County Common Pleas Judge Judy Hunter.

Goff, 44, was the last defense witness to testify. The former Stow resident smiled as he took the witness stand, cried while speaking of losing custody of the son his stepdaughter bore, and -- through a light-blue shirt -- sweated volleyball-sized rings under his arms through about 90 minutes of cross-examination.

Like his wife, Narda, who testified Wednesday, Goff denied forcing his stepdaughter to agree to the plan and denied inserting the semen-laced syringe into the teen, a move prosecutors say constitutes rape.

He said the pregnancy plan was all Grimm's idea -- that she was determined to become pregnant by whatever means necessary. He said Grimm and her mother came to him in late summer 1998 as he swam in the family pool.

``She made it clear to her mother and me that she was going to get pregnant with or without our permission, and that there will be a child in the house, with or without us,'' Goff said.

Goff said the family tried to use church and counseling to change his stepdaughter's mind. Nothing worked. He said the girl threatened to run away and find someone to impregnate her.

So, he said, he agreed to the plan so his stepdaughter could ``avoid the negative consequences if she got pregnant in the traditional fashion.''

Goff said supplying the semen was his only role; he neither witnessed nor took part in the insemination insertion.

In September 1999, Grimm gave birth to Goff's only natural child, a son. Goff, asked by his lawyer Jerry McHenry if he loved the boy, broke into tears and said, ``More than my own life.''

Prosecutors portray Grimm as an uneducated, abused child who has attempted suicide and endured sexual assaults throughout her life. But Goff said that other than the desire to become pregnant, Grimm had no emotional or psychological problems.

By January 2001, Grimm had moved in with her boyfriend, who encouraged her to tell police how she came to be a mother. In response, the boy was taken from the Goffs and placed for adoption.

Goff blamed the boyfriend for changing Grimm from an ``extremely happy'' teenager into a liar. ``Until (the boyfriend) came along, I don't know that she had a problem in the world,'' he said.

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Please note - the syringe...was a turkey baster.

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Replies:

[> Re: Ohio News *cue Dueling Bangos* -- chico781, 15:02:06 04/14/06 Fri [1]

"Please note - the syringe...was a turkey baster."

Nice.

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