Shifflet Rape Trial in Review

With the recent Steubenville rape trial recently concluded, the end of another underage molestation case is soon to draw to a close. Thomas E. Shifflet, a 76 year old Glouster, Ohio resident, was arrested in 2011 and will receive a sentence by the end of the week.The conflict began in an investigation, headed by Athens County Children’s Services and the Athens County Sheriff’s Department, of two daycare facilities with alleged reported rapes in June 2011; Shifflet’s daughter owned one of the two in question. The investigation began on June 26, 2011, and Shifflet was indicted by a grand jury and arrested on July 27, 2011. Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn held a press conference following Shifflet’s arraignment.“We believe that we have five counts [of Gross Sexual Imposition (GSI)], four that are uncharged but are substantiated,” Blackburn said. “All the victims are under 10 years old.”He went on to say his office was waiting on evidence and test results from the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification, while waiting for outside information to verify the things his office had.Shifflet’s bail was set for $2 million, because of his high flight risk level. Given his age, Blackburn said, even serving the mandatory minimum sentence would not allow Shifflet to see a parole hearing for ten years, so he argued for the high bond in order to protect the public.In Nov. 2011, DNA testing was conducted on the girl that Shifflet had allegedly raped. The DNA test was inconclusive: the time of the test versus the time of the assault was far too broad and the only DNA that was detected was the young girl’s. At this time, Shifflet was out of jail on bond with an ankle monitor. On Nov. 22, the children’s records were sought; there was one substantiated case, and the records of all five children being brought into the case were being requested.The case weighed upon the test results, which took some time. The next court action took place in May of 2012. On May 7, the four additional cases were substantiated and added to the case. On May 31, the defense asked for the charges to be dropped for the oldest victim. The charges were not dropped, however.In November of 2012, Judge Michael Ward approved the children for testimony. At the time of the offenses all the children were all under the age of ten, which was in 2010 through 2011. The ages of the children now ranged from 3 to 12 on the four newest counts, and the serious rape victim was 3 to 5 years old. Proceeding to December of 2012, defense attorney John Lavelle asked that there be separate trials for the separate offenses. This request was also denied.In February of 2013, Lavelle requested a delay of the trial because of the method the children would testify. Rather than force the girls into being in Shifflet’s direct presence, any testimony and cross-examination would be done through video conferencing, with the girls in another location or another room than the courtroom with Shifflet. The prosecutors claimed, with expert testimony, that the experience would be traumatic and may affect the girls in an adverse way. Lavelle did not support this move, largely from previous experience.In his delay motion, Lavelle wrote that the conferencing system could be cumbersome or awkward; oftentimes, the system would not even work properly. Instead, the defense moved to have the trial delayed until an expert witness could come and cross-examine the children; a local psychologist would be away on vacation and would not be able to be in town for the start of the trial. The prosecuting team argued that this action would give the defense a free shot to get skewed testimony with a witness evaluation of the children.Feb. 28 began the jury selection. Seventy candidates arrived for the screening. Of those in attendance, only 12 would be picked to deliver judgment on Shifflet. The group was told that the optimal juror would be someone willing to be in court from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., with four weeks of commitment, once the case began. The potential jurors were warned they would have to rely only on the testimony provided in court.On March 8, one of the victims testified: a six-year-old girl who alleged that Shifflet inserted a piece of paper into her vagina. She claimed he came by the daycare frequently; they were on the back porch when the assault occurred. The girl claims Shifflet’s daughter, the owner of the day care, saw her father and the girl and did nothing to stop it. Before her daughter reported what happened, the girl’s mother said her own mother had reported the incident to her, and having been recommended to go to Columbus’ Children’s Hospital, did so. Once there, it was found her daughter had a urinary tract infection that had not been present before the incident.After hearing all of the arguments, the jury was set to deliberate. It took around 19 total hours for them to reach an agreement. Prosecuting attorney Keller Blackburn said that the jury had a difficult time reaching a verdict.“Deadlock is a difficult term to use to describe the jury’s situation. Ten people wanted to convict him, 2 people were concerned about evidence brought into the court room ... Apparently there was an outside leak of information and they did not trust it,” Blackburn said.However, he also mentioned it did not take long for Count two to be decided.“Once the jury sat down and decided, their decision for count two was quick, and number five passed quickly as well. I believe they had the most issue with counts one, three, and four,” Blackburn said.Shifflet was convicted and found guilty of a GSI, though not in a timely manner from the jury. He was acquitted of the one count of sexual imposition; the jury, however, could not reach a verdict on the two other GSI counts and the more serious rape count. Lavelle stated he would be trying to appeal the conviction; he pointed out what he believes to be 22 assignments of error within the case. Although the defense did not call any witnesses, they did file for mistrial seven times throughout the trial. After the trial concluded, the defendant was escorted to the Southeast Ohio Regional Jail. The defense requested that he be isolated for his protection, which he was. The signature bond that had been set by the judge was taken down and a new bond of $500,000 was set.Blackburn said he was satisfied with the bail ruling, echoing the $2 million bond decision.“I requested the judge revoke his bail. Twelve people found this man guilty, he is a danger to society, and the state revoked his bail,” Blackburn said.The mandatory minimum sentence for the one GSI conviction is one year, but Blackburn says he will be asking for the maximum of five years.