Closing arguments are scheduled for today in an Oakland County Circuit court trial in which a 68 year old Macomb Township man is accused of making sexual advances on a 14 year old girl.
Pal Rakaj is originally from Albania and speaks broken English with a thick accent.
The girl, who is autistic, was running a lemonade stand at her parents garage sale in August of 2015.
Her mother testified that the girl had run into the home yelling that the man had offered her money for sex.
Rakaj took the stand in his own defense and said he asked the girl is she had something good for him … meaning, he said, for him to buy.
He said he then told her he could, in fact, fill his hands with clothes he wanted to buy.
But he said the girl misunderstood the Albanian word for fact and believed he had used an English obscenity.
The girl did not testify at the trial because of she has trouble communicating with others and couldn’t remember much about the incident.