Testimony continued Thursday in a Rainbow City sex crime case, with a Gadsden man charged with rape, incest and sexual abuse.

James Lee Kennedy, 51, was arrested in October 2016, a day after Department of Human Resources workers picked up a relative living with Kennedy, his wife and two children, at school.

Kennedy’s wife, Melanie Ann Kennedy, told jurors they didn’t know where the girl was and were worried until school officials said she’d been taken by DHR. When Rainbow City police arrived at their East Gadsden home the next day, she learned the girl had accused Kennedy of sexual misconduct.

Before Melanie Kennedy took the stand, there was discussion outside the jury’s presence about a violation of the rule that bars potential witnesses from hearing the testimony of other witnesses.

Etowah County Deputy District Attorney Carol Griffith told Circuit Judge George Day that the accused had been talking to his wife and telling her about the testimony of other witnesses.

Calls between Kennedy, being held in the Etowah County Detention Center, and his wife were recorded.

With defense attorney John Floyd set to call Melanie Kennedy as a witness, the state said the couple’s actions were a violation.

Day did not bar the testimony, but Griffith made clear in cross-examination that the communication had taken place between the two during the trial.

“Haven’t you and your husband had multiple conversations during the trial?” she asked.

Melanie Kennedy said they’d talked a couple of times.

“Didn’t he give you a details about every witnesses’ testimony?” Griffith asked.

“I wish,” Melanie Kennedy replied.

She told jurors she married the defendant in 2010 after “dating” online since 2010. She lived in Puerto Rico, and married Kennedy the day after she came to Alabama.

They have two children, including a special needs son with a rare genetic condition. She told the jury they moved to Puerto Rico in 2014 to deal with her grandparents’ estate, but Kennedy came back to the United States in October 2015 because of a call from the Department of Human Resources in Marshall County. He needed to take emergency custody of a juvenile relative.

The juvenile lived with the family in East Gadsden for a year, before she reported being molested and raped.

The report was made to Rainbow City police Oct. 6, 2016, about an incident at Southtowne Mini Warehouses in Rainbow City, where the Kennedys rented a storage unit.

The trial will continue on Friday.