A 15-year-old girl testified on Tuesday that while she was working in a summer job program at the Markham Municipal Center last year a former city employee raped her on his desk.

The girl, who was 14 at the time, testified in the first day of trial of Mark Houser, a former code enforcement officer for the city.

Houser, 44, is charged with criminal sexual assault and official misconduct. Cook County Criminal Court Judge Joseph Kazmierski is hearing the bench trial.

The girl testified she had worked in the Markham Municipal Center for the summer, until Aug. 2, 2005, when Houser allegedly sexually assaulted her in his office.

Soon after arriving to work at 9 a.m., Houser assigned her to work in his office doing clerical work on his computer, she said.

Minutes later, after Houser met with Markham's mayor and others in his office, he closed the door with only the two of them inside and began touching her shoulder and brushing his hand against her stomach, she said. Then he began to kiss her.

"I tried to push away from him, I told him to stop ... he began to kiss me on my mouth and I tried pulling away from him. I was scared, I didn't know what was going to happen to me," she said.

The girl, who had just graduated from grammar school two months earlier, said Houser soon picked her up by her arms and put her on his desk and sexually assaulted her.

"He gave me a big bear hug ... I tried to tell him to stop, he asked me if I liked it ... I started to cry," the girl said. "I was ashamed of what just happened."

After the alleged attack ended, Houser allegedly left the girl alone in his office.

She eventually called a friend to pick her up and drive her to the friend's home.

Eventually Markham police and the girl's mother were called.

"She said `Mom, I've been raped.'... And I screamed through the phone," her mother testified Tuesday.

Houser's lawyer, Ronald Kales, said in opening statements that his client admits having sex with the girl but he believed that she was over 18 years of age.

He said the girl kept asking to work for Houser and said the two had kissed the day before.

"It is true they had sex, there was no force. He believed she was over 18, she told him that she was over 18 years old," Kales said.

But under questioning by Assistant State's Atty. Karyn Stratton, the girl said Houser knew how old she was.

"I told him I was 14-years-old," the girl said. She denied kissing him the day before.

Houser was fired after he was charged.

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csadovi@tribune.com