HAMILTON — Michelle Taute and her stepson were watching TV in July 1998 when the boy became agitated and started to cry. Then came his startling admission.

        “He told me his uncle had been touching him,” said Ms. Taute, of Twin Falls, Idaho, whose videotaped testimony was shown Tuesday in Butler County Common Pleas Court.

        She said the boy, now 14, told her that the uncle forced him to touch his genitals and to perform oral sex on him. Later that year, she testified, the boy said he had lied about what his uncle did.

        The mother, whom the Enquirer is not naming to protect the boy's identity, is on trial for obstructing justice and child endangering. The 38-year-old Middletown woman faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

        The trial will resume at 12:30 p.m. today in Judge Michael Sage's courtroom.

        The teen-ager got AIDS after being assaulted by his uncle several times over a three-year period. The uncle is serving a 20-year prison term for raping the boy.

        Later that day in July 1998, Ms. Taute said, the boy's mother called her home and spoke with her son, who cried during the conversation.

        After that conversation, “he told (his father) and I that he was called a (expletive) liar,” Ms. Taute said, and “that his uncle would not hurt him because he loved him.”

        Several days later, Ms. Taute said, the boy's mother told her and his father that she had confronted the uncle, and that he had passed two polygraph tests.

        Ms. Taute said that over the next several months, the boy's mother called Idaho to update her and his father about the boy's condition. During a conversation in January 2000, she said, she told the boy's mother he should be tested for HIV. The boy's mother said he had been, and that the test was negative. Ms. Taute said she learned in February 2000 that her stepson had tested positive for HIV.

        The boy's grandmother also is charged with obstructing justice. Her trial is scheduled for March.

        Assistant Prosecutor Kacy Eaves said she will call Middletown Detective Fredrick Shuemake to testify today.

        The boy is in temporary custody of a maternal aunt and is receiving medical care.

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