WOODLAND — One of five boys who say an Esparto man repeatedly molested them took the witness stand Friday in Yolo Superior Court, describing the alleged conduct that led to 90 criminal charges being filed against the youth soccer coach and foster dad.

It was the first day of a preliminary hearing for Cristan James Rooms, 30, who has pleaded not guilty to allegations that he molested five boys, ages 9 to 13, over a nearly five-year period.

According to the testimony, Rooms was working as a computer technician at a Vacaville elementary school when he was assigned to be a “special friend” to the alleged victim, a sixth-grader who struggled with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“He would help me by taking me out of class and calming me down,” the witness, now 18, testified in Judge Timothy Fall’s courtroom. The Enterprise is withholding his name because of the nature of the case.

In the beginning, the pair played computer and board games in a school classroom. Soon, they were meeting outside of school, spending time at the local bowling alley or at Rooms’ mother’s house, he said.

When Rooms bought a home in a newer subdivision in Esparto, the boy visited three to four times a week, often spending the night. Eventually, he began staying for several weeks at a time, playing with video games or the numerous toys Rooms kept at the house, he said.

At one point, Rooms enrolled himself and the boy, whose father had died a couple years earlier, in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters youth mentoring organization. They traveled to various festivals, summer camps and once took an extended, multi-state road trip.

Nothing seemed unusual until the one day that the boy complained of a stomachache while at Rooms’ house. That evening, he said, Rooms gave him an enema, then massaged his penis and wrapped him in a diaper before sending him to bed.

“He said he didn’t want me to have an accident,” the teen testified under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Rob Gorman. “I was scared. … I didn’t know what he was doing.” Before long, the pair were showering together, he said.

The alleged victim estimated that Rooms either diapered him or showered with him — masturbating him each time — on more than 30 occasions between the ages of 13 and 14, but that he never asked why.

“I just went along with it — I just didn’t know if it was right or wrong,” he said.

Gorman called the teen as a key witness in the preliminary hearing, where a judge determines whether there is sufficient evidence for a case to move forward to the trial stage.

Fall is expected to issue his ruling after the hearing concludes on Sept. 14.

Rooms, 30, was arrested Dec. 12, 2011, after a different teenage boy confided to a mutual friend that Rooms had molested him repeatedly. By then, Rooms also had become a foster parent to a 6-year-old boy, who was removed from the home during the law-enforcement investigation.

The case later expanded to include five alleged victims whose ages ranged from 9 to 13. More than half of the 90 criminal charges — 85 of which are felonies — stem from alleged conduct involving the teen who testified Friday.

He said he came forward in January after hearing news reports of Rooms’ arrest. Until then, he hadn’t reported the alleged abuse because he feared Rooms, who he said would spank him when he refused to be diapered.

“He told me that if I told anyone, they wouldn’t understand,” he said.

But the physical violence went both ways, the teen later admitted under cross-examination by defense attorney Shannon Baker.

He acknowledged attacking Rooms during a sixth-grade camp, during the extended road trip and on other occasions, and said that Rooms never touched him inappropriately during those early excursions.

Shortly after his 14th birthday, the teen assaulted Rooms a final time at his Esparto home.

“I just snapped and started hitting him,” he said. Rooms responded by packing up the boy’s belongings and driving him to his mother’s house in Vacaville.

He said Rooms later gave him a letter explaining why they would have no further contact, which the teen crumpled up and threw back at him.

“Because you felt Mr. Rooms had abandoned you?” Baker asked.

“Yep,” the teen replied.

He said the two crossed paths one last time at a Roseville water park, where Rooms was accompanied by several young boys. Baker suggested the teen had tried to to rekindle his relationship with Rooms and was hurt when he refused, but the alleged victim said that wasn’t true.

“I didn’t care anymore,” he said.

Rooms remains in Yolo County Jail custody in lieu of $12 million bail.

— Reach Lauren Keene at [email protected] or (530) 747-8048. Follow her on Twitter @laurenkeene

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