A 16-year-old girl from Wrentham, Massachusetts, took the stand in a Mineola courtroom earlier this week to testify about her experience last August when she was allegedly kidnapped by a couple and brought to their Farmingdale home.

In August 2001, Farmingdale resident Beth Loschin and her Hampton Bays boyfriend James Warren were arrested for allegedly kidnapping the girl, then 15, after corresponding with her in an Internet chat room and agreeing to meet at a local mall. Upon meeting the couple, she was allegedly taken into the back seat, handcuffed and sexually abused.

When asked earlier this week to identify James Warren in the courtroom, who was sitting a few feet away from her at the defense table, the girl said she didn't see him in the room. When she was asked by the prosecutor to describe the man, she testified that he was tall and had long hair. Warren, who once had long hair, now has short hair.

There is no indication that there will be any legal impact on the case due to the girl's failure to identify Warren, as his attorney stated in his opening statement that Warren is in fact the man with whom the girl had sex with the week she was in his and Loschin's custody. His attorney also stated that the girl told Warren that she was 18 years old at the time of their meeting. The girl testified that she told Warren she was only 15.

During her time with Warren and Loschin last summer, the girl was allegedly sexually abused continuously, in Loschin's Farmingdale home, at Warren's home in Hampton Bays and at two out-of-state hotels. The couple also allegedly dropped the girl off at the house of Michael Montez, a resident of Astoria, where she was also sexually abused. Montez recently pleaded guilty to raping the girl while she was in his apartment.

Warren, who faces charges such as kidnapping, sodomy, rape and attempted murder, could serve 25 years to life if convicted. Loschin, who after making a deal with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and sodomy, faces four years.

The girl was to take the stand again in court on Tuesday, at the Farmingdale Observer's press time.