By By NORMA LERNER / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS -- A jury of nine women and four men began deliberations on Thursday afternoon in the third day of testimony in the trial of a Cassopolis man accused of criminal sexual conduct involving a 10-year-old girl.
Gary Marchbanks, 52, is accused of six counts of criminal sexual conduct, three counts of first-degree and three counts of second-degree, between November, 2001, and February, 2002, against a female less than 13 years old.
Marchbanks took the stand Thursday and repeatedly denied the allegations against the girl posed to him by Interim Prosecutor David Moore. He denied penetrating the girl digitally or taking nude pictures of her and loading them on disks to sell on the Internet.
He was also questioned about receiving more channels than what he paid for via satellite TV by piloting programs to record and sell. Marchbanks claimed electronics was a hobby of his and that he would exchange disks with others but not sell them.
A witness on behalf of the defendant testified that Marchbanks drove to his property in Indiana on a particular evening in February, 2002, to deliver a motor for him to work on since he was a mechanic. This was the date that Marchbanks was accused of molesting the girl.
There was also testimony by Marchbanks that he and his wife fought constantly. Defense attorney Thomas Hirsch of Kalamazoo said the marriage was not good and that a set up may have been arranged to get him arrested and divorce him. He said the wife took $15,000 from Marchbank's business account and cleaned out their personal account that was in both names prior to their divorce.
Circuit Court Judge Michael E. Dodge instructed the jury about acting on each criminal sexual conduct count individually and asked them to take a recess until Friday morning at 9 a.m. after deliberating for one and one-half hours.
Marchbanks was arrested in May and is jailed on a $500,000 bond.