CASPER — A former caseworker with the Wyoming Department of Family Service who took a call from an adopted daughter of Steven Marler who said he sexually assaulted her.
By that time, she had been sent to Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy, a group home for children and said she was afraid for the other children back at Marler's home.
Former DFS supervisor and caseworker Roberta Volk testified Wednesday, the sixth day of Marler’s trial in Natrona County District Court.
After having one child sex abuse charge dismissed the day before, he’s now on trial facing 25 charges alleging sex assaults, battery and child endangerment on children in his care between 2012 and 2021.
Wednesday also marked a turn in the trial for Marler, 50, as his defense team began presenting its case with questioning and testimony that questions the validity of the multiple allegations by the children.
While under cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Brandon Rosty, Volk testified about receiving that call from Marler’s adopted daughter on May 10, 2021, from the youth boot camp.
“In that call she had gotten to Cowboy Challenge and had reported a sexual abuse to me,” Volk said.
She agreed with Rosty that the girl was scared and that she was afraid for the other children at the home.
Volk testified that the girl told her there was a time that Marler thought she was telling the other children in the family home about sexual incidents and that he “kicked her.”
She saw her role that day as “taking a report and not asking too many questions,” Volk said, adding the report was forwarded to a DFS investigator.
Defense attorney Brandon Petersen asked Volk, a defense witness, if the daughter mentioned she was about to graduate from the Cowboy Challenge and that she wanted to live with Marler’s mother.
“I don’t believe she wanted to go home,” Volk said.
Petersen indicated in his opening argument of the trial that the defense intended to show that Marler’s home had become a place his adopted children wanted to escape from, and that the children used sexual allegations as a means to keep them from returning.
Marler and his wife had hosted numerous foster children, along with having some of their own biological children. They would go on to adopt a number of the foster kids.
A Mentor Role
The former caseworker said she initially joined the DFS as an employee in Casper in 2007 and knew Marler and his wife, Kristen, in 2008 when they first became certified to become foster parents.
Volk said she was the caseworker for two of the children who later were adopted by the Marlers before she moved into a supervisor role.
Volk testified she was approached by Kristen Marler about being a mentor for the girl as she went to the boot camp because having a mentor was a requirement to enter. She said even though she was a supervisor at DFS, she continued to have contact with the girl from time to time.
Volk said during her time as a caseworker, the Marlers complied with DFS rules. Generally speaking, during a home visit for a court-ordered placement of a child, the caseworker would only be allowed to interview the child under the court placement and not other children in the home.
Volk said DFS does not allow foster parents to spank foster children who are placed in the home. She also said there are limits to the number of children who can be placed in a home, but it varies based on home size and whether there are children with higher needs placed there.
The Marlers attended trainings for foster and adoptive parents, and Volkagreed with Petersen that the Marlers had asked DFS to go to an out-of-state conference on “reactive detachment disorder.”
Rosty asked Volk about payment for foster parents. Volk said foster parents get a monthly payment for each foster child and even after adoption are eligible for payments for the child.
The base amount is $399 and “can go up significantly” based on the needs of the child.
Counselor Testifies
Earlier Wednesday, the defense called expert witness Roxanne Thompson, a certified mental health counselor from Colorado, who testified that much of her career was spent helping foster children and parents.
Thompson testified that children placed in foster care typically “become kind of manipulative” and develop “controlling behaviors” because they have been taken from their homes and have no control in their lives.
Under questioning by Petersen, she testified that often children taken out of their homes come from situations where they may have been neglected and not had regular nutrition, so they will hoard and steal food.
“They may steal food from school or from 7-11 with their buddies and never eat it,” she said. “It’s just so they have that security.”
Rosty asked Thompson about putting locks on refrigerators and pantries. She said that sometimes she advised foster parents to do that, but that they needed to have other food available for children to access at all times.
Thompson also testified that she has advised foster parents to put up cameras in common areas of the home as a means of documenting actions inside the home.
“You wouldn’t recommend deleting camera footage, would you?” Rosty asked.
“No,” she replied.
“That would defeat the purposes of cameras,” Rosty said.
“Absolutely,” Thompson replied.
Those Videos
Earlier in the trial, a Natrona County Sheriff’s Office investigator testified to seizing a DVR device from the Marler home that had three cameras attached.
One had a view of an upstairs bathroom, and an initial search of the device showed nothing recorded. A subsequent forensic search revealed more than 1,000 deleted files, and files shown in court depicted corporal punishment, punishment of a nude boy, and Marler receiving a massage from his four adopted daughters.
Thompson also testified to the difference between “punishment” and “discipline.”
She characterized the former and “punitive” and discipline as a teaching moment that involves a consequence.
Thompson said punishment can be a “trigger” for children already struggling with attachment issues in a foster or adoptive home. She agreed with Rosty that using wood or belts to hit children or restrict access to the bathroom would be against the rules in Colorado.
Also Wednesday, court records showed Rosty filed new charging information that contains 25 counts against Marler with new language on several of the counts to meet the standards of Wyoming law regarding sex crimes.
He also filed a brief, arguing that the charging information does not prejudice the defense.
The defense Tuesday asked Judge Kerri Johnson to acquit their client of 11 of the 20 sexual abuse of a minor charges against their client. Rosty agreed to drop one charge and the judge dismissed it.
Johnson has yet to rule on the defense’s acquittal request and the new charging language.
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
