SWISS BOY PLEADS INNOCENT TO MOLEST

The prosecution claims he simulated sex with his five-year-old sister admitted setting four fires before his late August arrest, and, their parents showed porn videos at home in front of them.

The 11-year-old Swiss-American boy whose arrest on incest charges has triggered a small international furor pleaded not guilty Monday to the charge in court - despite a prosecution contention that he admitted touching his five-year-old sister sexually just before his late August arrest.

Jefferson County Chief Deputy District Attorney Hal Sargent made the contentions during a preliminary hearing last week for Raoul Wuthrich. Sargent also said the boy had set four fires in the month before his arrest, though he offered no details and said it came up during a probe to decide where to place him after being taken from his home, says the Rocky Mountain News.

Swiss diplomats watched the proceedings Monday, which were closed to the public, and said negotiations were continuing over releasing the boy to authorities in their country, the News says. But about 50 Swiss, Austrian, and German reporters were barred from the hearing - which was also closed to the public - because of the outraged way in which the case is played in the press there.

According to the News, Sargent says the boy told a counselor he had touched his sister and used slang implying he "simulated" sex with her. Sargent also said in court, the News continues, that he has witnesses who saw the boy's parents showing porn videos at home in front of the children - but other witnesses testified both Raoul and his older sister say their parents did not allow them to see the videos.

Raoul is said to have gone now to his second foster home since his release from juvenile jail in late October and the courts want to keep his location out of the public eye.

The case made headlines in Switzerland after his parents and three sisters fled the U.S., with the parents saying they feared arrest and losing their other children. Swiss and German media were horrified over Raoul's handcuffing and shackling when he was arrested. But some of the support the boy's family received evaporated when his parents admitted planning an erotic Web site, registering a company called Ultimate Fantasies over the summer - right in the middle of the incest probe.

The News says prosecutors claim they would not have arrested the boy had his parents taken action on their own, and that they arrested him only because they feared he'd leave with his parents and not receive treatment. The arrest meant the authorities could act at once to keep him from his younger sister, the News says, adding authorities could only take him after a hearing or if he was in imminent danger.

"All we really want for the juvenile is appropriate treatment," Sargent told the paper. "In a lot of these cases, if we can get cooperation from the family and have some type of safety plan, we can return the child to the family quickly. Under appropriate circumstances, we would love him to go to Switzerland."

But Sargent also says the information alleging the parents allowed the children to see pornographic videos normally would be considered in deciding whether a child could return home.