BEDFORD – Jury selection began this morning in Lawrence County Superior Court I in the child molesting and incest trial of Joseph Thomas.
Indiana State Police arrested then 34-year-old Joseph Thomas, of Bedford, in July 2020 on two felony counts of incest, 15 felony counts of child molestation, and two felony counts of criminal confinement. Since his arrest, seven counts of child molestation were dropped.
Judge John Plummer III is presiding over the four-day trial.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed by ISP Detective Stacy Brown, on May 19, 2020 police were alerted by the Department of Child Services that a 15-year-old female was a victim of repeated sexual assault by her uncle. The girl said she also witnessed Thomas assault her sister.
The first victim told police and a therapist during an interview at Susie’s Place, a child advocacy center in Bloomington, that her mother did not know about the incidents. She had tried over the years to block out the facts of the incidents in a home in Mitchell and in a house where Thomas lived with his mother.
She told police the assaults began when she was around four or five and continued until she was 13.
She told police the incidents happened while Thomas babysat her and her sister while their parents worked. The girls told police Thomas always had pornography magazines and would watch pornography movies and videos on his phone or computer. One of those movies was about a man having sex with his niece and telling the girl, “This is what family does.”
One of the females told police she would try and get away from Thomas, but he was “bigger and stronger than her and would keep her there.”
She also told police Thomas did the same thing to her older sister. That sister also shared with police how Thomas had violated her.
The older girl told police that when Thomas showed her the movies, he would tell her, “This is what people do to show love and feel good.” He would also play “games” that he made up. One game included tying up both girls with duct tape to chairs. He would then place a cell phone on the floor and tell them they could call 911 for help if they could get free. The older girl told police she ended up biting through the tape, and when she went to grab the phone, Thomas took it from her.
The girl told police Thomas was a drug user and was violent, and she was afraid if she resisted or told anyone, he would hurt her or her sister.
Both girls told police that the incidents had stopped once they moved to a house in Yockey Estates.
When police interviewed Thomas, he admitted to touching both girls, but he said the girls had forced him to do it. He told police if he did not do what the girls told him, they would tell their father that he had them touch him inappropriately. Joseph said he hated to use the term “blackmailed” because they were children but that he was forced to do certain things.
Thomas told police he was glad this was finally brought to light so he could move past it. He stated he thought the girls had forgotten about it since it had been so long. Thomas told police that he was bothered by what the girls had done to him, and disclosing it helped.
