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CEDAR RAPIDS -- The brother of a man charged with kidnapping and killing a Cedar Rapids girl has asked a judge to throw out a videotaped interview with the child.
James Bentley, 33, of Vinton, is accused of sexually abusing 10-year-old Jetseta Gage during a two-year period.
His brother, Roger Paul Bentley, 37, of Brandon, faces kidnapping and murder charges in the child's slaying last month.
James Bentley's attorney, David Fiester, filed a motion Thursday arguing the taped interview violates Bentley's Sixth Amendment right to confront his accuser.
James Bentley has been in the Linn County jail since November on a second-degree sexual abuse charge.
Prosecutors have said James Bentley abused Jetseta at his Vinton apartment in late October or November 2004 and in Linn County from January 2002 through November 2004. On Nov. 16, 2004, during the investigation of the sexual abuse allegation, Jetseta was interviewed at St. Luke's Child Protection Center. The interview was videotaped.
James Adams, a law professor at Drake University, said it's unusual but not uncommon for a victim or witness to die or become unavailable for some other reason.
When prosecutors must rely on a videotaped statement, "the options are not that good," Adams said.
The U.S. Supreme Court says that out-of-court statements are rarely admissible in court because the defendant can't confront his accuser.
"Unless there's some other basis for admitting that out-of-court statement, it's going to be difficult to get it in," Adams said.
Roger Bentley is accused of kidnapping Jetseta from her Cedar Rapids home on March 24. He was arrested the next morning at an abandoned mobile home in rural Johnson County where officials later found the child's body.
According to trial information filed earlier this week, investigators think Roger Bentley sexually abused the girl, bound her feet and tied a plastic bag over her head, causing her to suffocate.
Bentley hid the girl's body in a cabinet inside the mobile home.
Roger Bentley remains in the Linn County jail on a $3 million bond.