WARSAW — After a long four and a half hours of jury selection, the trial of State vs. Dominic Fisher officially began on Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 20.

Dominic John Fisher

The trial revolves around charges that were filed in 2015. According to an affidavit released by the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office, Dominic J. Fisher, 32, of 978 E. CR 900N, Milford, is alleged with two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor between 14 and 16 years old — both level 4 felony charges.

According to the affidavit, on Sunday, May 24, 2015, an officer responded to a sexual misconduct complaint. The girl stated that while she was not physically forced to have intercourse with Fisher, he had harassed her to a point of giving in to him. The misconduct took place on two separate occasions, once while the girl was babysitting Fisher’s children, the second time while his wife and children were gone. Both instances reportedly occurred in the basement of Fisher’s home.

On Tuesday, May 26, 2015, officers with the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department conducted an interview with Fisher, who stated nothing had happened between he and the girl.

However, on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015 Fisher’s wife met with officers and stated Dominic admitted to her that he had intercourse with the girl on two occasions.

During yesterday morning’s jury selection over 20 different jurors were dismissed from their service for various reasons. Both attorneys questioned the 33 present jurors about their views on sexual misconduct, their understanding of a reasonable doubt, their careers and many other topics. The jury selection lasted almost five hours.

In the end, the attorneys agreed on a jury of 12 people with one alternate juror. The jury is made up of 6 women and 7 men.

After a recess for lunch, the attorneys presented their opening statements.

Katie Hampton, deputy prosecuting attorney, spoke first. Hampton began her statement by setting a scene for the jurors.

“The discovery of a pregnancy test wrapper and some marijuana led to the discovery of sexual misconduct.”

Hampton continued to describe the day the girl’s stepmother made a discovery that ultimately led to the girl telling her mother about the sexual misconduct. The girl confessed that Fisher, who is her uncle, had sexually assaulted her after her mother found the pregnancy test wrapper that stemmed from other sexual activities.

Marielena Duerring, the defense attorney, told a story of a young, scared girl during her opening statement.

“On May 24 [the girl] was a 15-year-old girl who was in a lot of trouble. Her mother had just found a pregnancy test and marijuana.”

After the two opening statements, the state called their first witness to the stand, Kosciusko County Sheriff Deputy Tom Waikel. Waikel was the responding officer during the sexual misconduct investigation on May 24. Waikel described the day’s events.

Waikel stated that he met with the girl’s parents who first reported the sexual misconduct. The girl was not there and he advised them bring her to the sheriff’s department to give a statement on the incident. Waikel said that during the initial interview the girl was, “A little uneasy, but she felt comfortable speaking with me.”

Waikel advised that after the initial interview was complete he turned the case over to the prosecution’s office and CPS for further investigation.

The state’s second witness was Debra Pennington, family case manager for Kosciusko County Child Services. Pennington began her testimony by explaining her role in the investigation process.

“Our role is for the safety of the children. Once we get the initial assessment sent to us we go forward and get an interview set up.”

Pennington set up an interview with the girl on May 26. Pennington couldn’t clearly remember if she talked to the parents before or after the interview, but she was sure she talked to them at some point. She explained that she does a lot of these interviews in her job and it can become hard to recall certain details over a year later.

After the two witnesses took the stand, Judge David Cates called a recess for the remainder of the day. The trial was set to continue at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21.