After more than six hours of testimony from prosecution and defense witnesses on Nov. 7 and Nov. 14, the preliminary hearing for Roger Ferworn, the 55-year-old Grosse Pointe Woods man who is facing three felony charges of criminal sexual conduct, will continue on Nov. 28 in Grosse Pointe Woods Municipal Court.
Ferworn is accused of molesting a girl from 2007 to 2011. Police have testified that the girl was 14 years old when the molestation began and that she has a mental handicap.
He is charged with three counts of second degree criminal sexual conduct in which he used a position of authority he had over the victim to coerce her to submit to the sexual conduct. The girl was a friend of Ferworn's daughter.
Testimony has centered on a diary and notes that the girl wrote which were discovered by her mother. The notes detail sexual acts with Ferworn and the girl's hope that she would find a boyfriend or husband someday like Ferworn.
Defense attorney Shannon Smith asked if certain acts contained in the notes were simply fantasy by a young girl wanting normalcy and to be treated like someone without a mental disability. The girl asserted she and Ferworn had a sexual relationship but admitted that certain entries in her notes were fiction.
In her testimony on Nov. 14, the girl said that she had sex with Ferworn in the basement of Ferworn's home and in multiple rooms throughout the house. She appeared to struggle as she described the sexual acts and tried to remember dates when the sexual contact occurred.
Ferworn quietly consulted with his attorneys during the proceeding, but was otherwise silent and unemotional during the testimony. He did not testify.
After three hours of testimony on Wednesday, Judge Ted Metry adjourned the preliminary exam until Nov. 28 at 1 pm and continued Ferworn's $10,000 cash or 10 percent surety bond. Ferworn is also ordered to wear a GPS tether during his release due to the "gravity" of the charges and case.
