Two different pictures of a 15-year-old girl were presented Tuesday as the trial of a Leesburg man accused of having sex with his underage babysitter began. Dominic Fisher, 33, is charged with two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor, both level 4 felonies. Fisher was charged in 2015 after a female relative, who was at his house babysitting, told police Fisher harassed her into having sex with him on his pool table twice in spring 2015, according to court documents. Both Christanne Hampton, deputy prosecuting attorney, and defense attorney Mari Duerring said the accusation came about after the girl’s stepmother found marijuana and a pregnancy test wrapper from an apparent unrelated sexual encounter in her room. Hampton argued the discovery of the marijuana and pregnancy test got the teenager to open up to her stepmother. “She felt the emotion of those things and she wanted to tell the whole truth,” Hampton said in her opening statement. She told the jury that the evidence will show that Fisher scared the girl into having him sex with him, told her that no one would believe her if she told and “Fisher took advantage of the situation to satisfy his sexual desires.” Duerring painted a picture of a girl who was looking for a way out of trouble. “This is a girl who was in hot water when she made these accusations,” Duerring said in her opening statement. “She was upset, she was angry and she knew she was in trouble.” Duerring told the jury how once the teenager accused Fisher, the focus shifted from the marijuana and pregnancy test found in her room to Fisher. Duerring said the girl can provide little to no details about the second incident and was calm and matter-of-fact during the interview process. “Ultimately, there’s a lot of talk and turmoil in this family,” she said. The state’s evidence in this case will fail, she said. After opening statements, two state winess took the stand, Deputy Thomas?Waikel, Kosciusko?County Sheriff’s Department, and Debra Pennington, Child Protective Services. Waikel said he responded to the dispatch call and met with the girl’s parents regarding the complaint. He said he told the parents he would need to speak with the teenager to investigate further. A few days later, the parents brought the girl to the KCSD where Waikel interviewed her, he said. Duerring questioned Waikel’s training and experience with interviewing child victims. Waikel replied he had received many trainings in conducting interviews. Duerring also questioned the girl’s demeanor, asking Waikel if the girl ever cried or showed emotion. Waikel responded that she did not, but wouldn’t go as far to say she was calm. “She was a little uneasy, but felt comfortable,” he said in response to a question from Hampton. Pennington got the case after the KCSD forwarded the case to CPS. Pennington performed a separate second interview with the girl, where the girl made the same claim. Pennington said the girl didn’t seem emotional and didn’t cry during the interview. Duerring questioned Pennington on her investigation tactics and questioned whether she looked at the circumstances surrounding the accusation. Pennington replied that she wasn’t sure what Duerring was asking, and after some prodding said CPS takes the totality of all the evidence into consideration. The trial is scheduled to conclude today in Kosciusko County Superior Court I.?After all evidence has been presented, the case will be sent to the six-man, six-woman jury for a verdict. If convicted, Fisher faces two to 12 years in prison and a $10,000 fine on each count.
