Former Preschool Worker Cries on Stand in Denying Molestation : Trial: Mildly retarded defendant testifies that he is not guilty. Case has fueled debate over validity of child abuse prosecutions in general.

In often-wrenching testimony, a mildly retarded man tearfully told a jury Thursday that he is innocent of 38 counts of child abuse and kidnaping in a case that has polarized his community and become a volatile local drama in newspapers and on talk shows.

The trial of Dale Akiki, 35, recently entered its seventh month. A total of 152 witnesses have testified, including the 11 children who say Akiki molested them at the Faith Chapel charismatic church in Spring Valley between June, 1988, and September, 1989, when he was a volunteer teacher at its nursery school.

Akiki has been accused of sexually molesting and torturing small children and terrorizing them by hanging them upside-down from a chandelier, dunking them in toilets and making them drink the blood of animals.

The case has drawn national attention partly because of the appearance of Akiki, who has club feet, a concave chest and droopy eyelids, and has described himself as deformed. Akiki suffers from Noonan’s syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, and from hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid that causes an enlarged head.

The trial has also fueled the debate over the validity of child abuse cases in general.

Critics say it illustrates the difficulty of obtaining accurate testimony from children, who are often influenced by the suggestions of parents and therapists. Many of the children in the case initially denied that Akiki had done anything wrong, saying merely that he “looked funny.”

Some children said Akiki brought an elephant and a giraffe to class, killed the elephant in front of his startled audience and slaughtered a rabbit as a way of warning his 3- and 4-year-old subjects not to reveal his heinous crimes.

One boy even said that Akiki sacrificed a human baby in front of the nursery group, while another said that the elephant was both “real” and “not real.” Another said Akiki often made him drink gorilla juice as a kind of satanic punishment.

Through direct testimony Wednesday and under cross-examination Thursday, Akiki vehemently denied the charges and broke down and cried twice while stating his innocence and mentioning his mother and his wife, from whom he has been separated since being arrested in May, 1991.

Despite having no prior record, the former Navy supply employee has languished in San Diego County Jail without bail--which three judges rejected, citing the risk to alleged victims and the fears of their parents.

“I loved those kids as if they were my own,” Akiki testified. “And I thought they loved me the way I loved them. I don’t understand why they would say those things about me. Maybe it’s my appearance.”

Akiki said he had spent a lifetime trying to overcome the stigma of his odd appearance, which he admitted frightens children and adults.

But asked by public defender Kathleen Coyne if he had ever threatened, harmed or molested a child, he answered firmly and with tears welling in his eyes: “No. I swear on my father’s grave, I didn’t do it.”

He admitted wiping one child’s bottom after the boy went to the bathroom and helping another boy button his jeans. He said he once disciplined a 3-year-old girl by placing her in a “timeout” chair after she called another child “poo-poo and pee-pee face.”

It was that child’s statement to her mother that Akiki “showed me him’s penis” that launched the case in August, 1989.

In recent weeks, the defense has won small victories by having some of the original counts dismissed while two ministers affiliated with Faith Chapel both testified that a wave of hysteria overcame parents and fueled the investigation that critics have branded a witch hunt.

In a remarkably short cross-examination Thursday, Deputy Dist. Atty. John Williams asked Akiki if he had once worn rings on all of his fingers. Yes, he replied.

Williams asked if Akiki had used a ring to trick a young girl into letting him touch her vagina. “Absolutely not,” Akiki said.

In a moment of courtroom drama, Williams held up a fake knife and a toy bunny in simulating one of the accusations against Akiki--that he pretended to kill a rabbit by stabbing a toy bunny in front of the children.

As several in the courtroom attempted to stifle their laughter, Akiki denied the accusation.