South Gibson Star-Times

A-2 Top News Tuesday, Januar y 16, 2018 South Gibson Star-Times casional occupational haz- ard for drivers. "They answer the call when needed. They're here to serve," he said. One truck was in an acci- dent when a motorist didn't yield the right of way, which took a snow plow off the road, he said. "One thing we'd like to emphasize, is for people to heed us, if they can, to pull over and let us by," he said. Also, he said with 1200 miles of county road, and be- ing down by a plow, he would let people know it's tough to get down every single road that first day, but crews were really working to get at least one passable lane on every county road by the end of the weekend. In his four years as super- intendent, this is his first re- ally big snow, and he'd be just as happy, he said, to see sunshine and 60 degrees the rest of his career; however, he was very pleased with how well the county crews handled the challenges. attorneys opened arguments. The charge of seduction is unique in that nei- ther the defense, the victim nor the prosecu- tion said the sexual acts were non-consensu- al. Also, at age 16, the victim is of age to con- sent to sex in Indiana. Child seduction is instead about the relation- ship between the victim and the accused and whether the person had a position of author- ity that would make the person in a unique position to seduce a person aged 16 -18. The statute specifically names childcare workers, people in business relationships, law enforce- ment officers and school workers as potential perpetrators. An attorney assisting the prosecution, An- thony Hurst, called it a "gentle, insinuating," crime that doesn't affect the victim until its aftermath. The crux of the defense's case was that Greer was not at the school as a childcare work- er, and that supervising students wasn't part of his job description. Rather, the defense argued Greer was on a private detail and students were the priori- ty of teachers and other administration, while Greer's job was more about the safety of the building. They did not dispute the sexual nature of the relationship. "There will be evidence of a sexual relation- ship," Moody told the court. "A 16 -year-old can consent to sex. Circumstances have to do with using a position of authority. Listen carefully to whether there was a position of authority. I think the evidence will show (...) no crime was committed." According to the victim, who took the stand, he was friends with Greer from the time he was in middle school in Fort Branch, and then in- to high school. In eighth grade, the student was a teacher's aide, and when the teacher took students out of the classroom, he'd be left behind, and Greer would come in to talk to the student while he was grading papers. He once asked the stu- dent to help him in an investigation of a place rumored to sell alcohol to minors, but after the student agreed, the opportunity didn't ma- terialize. More than one high school student testified they had matched with the school deputy on dating apps. One student, not the victim of the case, said Greer approached him online, giving hints as to who he was at the school—hinting he was someone official, and asking him to guess his identity. The final clue was that Greer told the stu- dent he'd watched him during a school play practice, which confirmed to the student it was Greer since he'd seen him there. "I'm pretty shy so I didn't talk back," the student said. When asked if he knew it was the deputy, considering many people pose as someone else online, the student said Greer had once approached him in an English class when the teacher was helping others to ask why he hadn't returned his messages. Another student matched with Greer on two dating apps—Tinder and Grindr, posing as her male cousin. The prosecution pointed out that she was pretending she was someone she was not on an app that required users to be 18 years old. Grindr tells users how far away people they matched with were, and how long ago they were active. While at school, the app would flag her, pointing out when Greer was not far away, and disclosing he had been active recent- ly on the app. She knew it was him, she said, because his profile had his picture. "But you were definitely pretending to be someone you are not," Moody said. The victim of the case described talking to Greer on apps—Facebook, Snapchat, Kick and once Grindr, an app for homosexual men to find one another. Kick was where they talked the most, the student said, because it is an app that makes messages harder to recover. The student said they talked "pretty deeply." The relationship culminated in a sexual act one night at his home when his mother was away, he said. He was age 16 at the time. Greer was at least 29, the prosecution said. The victim pointed to Greer as the person he let into his home. The prosecution asked if Greer had been wearing his uniform at the time or if he had used his position as a police officer to convince the student. The student said he had not. They asked if he was driving his police car— the student didn't know because Greer parked away from his house. A fter the incident, the two talked about the encounter online, but the student didn't see Greer much. The student told the officer he was busy. "Since the incident, I haven't wanted to open up or share anything with anyone," he said. Meanwhile, the relationship came to the at- tention of a teacher, who went to Owensville School Resource Officer Ben Kiesel, who took it to Det. Sgt. Roger Ballard. Ballard trains school resource officers based on the nation- al training he took and also serves at schools. Ballard went to high school with Greer, played on sports teams with him, and worked with him in community corrections. He did the initial investigation. When the victim received a call from Bal- SNOW Continued from page 1 GREER Continued from page 1 See GREER on page 3 Left: Andy Clarke shovels his neighbor's driveway Saturday in the aftermath of Fri- day's winter weath- er. He said he doesn't really mind shovel- ing the drives. "If you can just get down to the blacktop, the sun hits it, and it starts to warm up," he said. Right: Norman Shockley walks his dogs Timmy (left) and Sarge in Fort Branch on Sunday. Alden Heuring photo. Kenny Krack, of Oakland Machine Shop Inc. in Fort Branch, deals with the drifts that pile up on the door of his business. Raylan Boop gets a dust of snow to the face Sat- urday as he slaps and packs the snow into a buck- et. Trustees of First United Methodist Church in Fort Branch were out in force Saturday to clear the sidewalks, parking lots and driveways in ad- vance of Sunday services.

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