Trace Christenson

Battle Creek Enquirer

A 17-year-old girl testified Wednesday that she was repeatedly sexually assaulted nearly two years ago by a former Emmett Township police officer, but that she initially lied to investigating officers to protect him.

"I wanted to protect him," she said, "because I loved him."

The testimony came on the second day of testimony in the trial of Troy Estree, 46, charged with nine counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a teenage girl to whom he is related. He faces up to life in prison if convicted. The Enquirer does not reveal the names or other identifying information of sexual assault victims.

Also on Wednesday, a doctor and a physician's assistant told the jury that both the girl and Estree have herpes.

The girl, who was 15 during much of 2014 when the alleged assaults occurred, testified for nearly five hours. Testimony continues Thursday before Calhoun County Circuit Court Judge John Hallacy.

The teenager told the jury she had been estranged from Estree for 13 years before re-establishing contact in the summer of 2013. She told Kalamazoo County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Stein, appointed as special prosecutor, that she was pleased to renew a relationship with Estree. She spent time with him and his family and “at the beginning it was pretty cool. It was awesome to be reunited.”

They first met in public places, but later met at Estree's home, which he shared with his wife, their two children and Estree's mother.

The girl said that beginning in 2014, things changed.

“It started with him touching me up my leg and closer to my thighs and then my private areas," she told Stein. She said they were watching the television show "Family Guy" and “I didn’t know what to do. He started rubbing my thighs and up to my vagina.”

“I didn’t know what to expect, and I didn’t want to let him down," she said. "If I said no he might walk out again.”

He gave her a phone and they began exchanging messages, and she spent more time at the house including overnights. He began to give her alcohol, she said.

One night, the girl said, others in the house were asleep and she and Estree were on a couch watching the television show, "Family Guy."

She said he pulled down her shorts and had anal intercourse.

"I don't remember what he said, but he was probably kissing my neck," she said. "I said I didn't want to do it anymore. I felt like trash. He said OK."

But a few weeks a later, she said, he wanted to show her a camper in the yard and said he wanted to have oral sex, and she said he did.

"I blocked out what I was thinking," she said.

She told the jury she began to think of the relationship not between relatives but more like dating.

"I enjoyed it," she said.

She described several other assaults, including in a basement bedroom and later at a construction site and at Bridge Park while she was riding with him while he was on patrol for the department.

"I thought it was normal," she said. "It was like a relationship thing. Now I know I had sex with (him), and it destroyed a whole family. It felt good. I had not had sex before and it felt good. I saw him more as a friend."

While on ride-a-longs, the girl said Estree assaulted her while wearing his duty belt on a park bench and another time on the trunk of the patrol car.

She said the sex became normal and "we both gave each other a look and then there was caressing and kissing and touching each other. It felt more like a boyfriend. I called him 'Bro.'"

During cross-examination by defense attorney Keeley Heath, the girl described her interview with Michigan State Police Detective Sgt.Heather Johnson on Aug. 12, 2014.

The girl said she thought she would be interviewed about the alcohol Estree had given her, but Johnson began questioning her about sex. The girl told Heath she continued to deny having sex with Estree and told Johnson it was with a person named Brock.

Heath described the intensity of the interview, and the girl agreed that Johnson accused her of having sex with Estree and said if she didn't admit it that the detective would call every number in her cell phone to say the girl had herpes.

The girl said she began to cry. "I guessed she already knew. I knew she knew I was having anal sex with (Estree)."

She eventually told Johnson she has sex with him thousands of times, "but that was just an exaggeration."

She said Brock was a name she invented — the first three letters were B-R-O.

The girl admitted to Heath that she had lied while under oath to protect Estree and that she told her therapist that other people, not her, were having sex.

"I made it up because I didn't know what else to do to cover up for (Estree). I made them up because I was still trying to protect (him). I was trying to limit his years in prison."

She acknowledged that she had cut herself in the past and used fake names on Facebook, but she also said she told her best friend when the sexual assaults began.

Near the end of the day, Heath suggested that one of the examples of a sexual assault created by the girl was from an episode of "Family Guy," which the girl said she often watched with Estree.

But when Heath wanted to show a portion of the show to the girl, Stein objected, saying there was not proper notice by the defense of the exhibit.

"This was something that the defense planned and did not disclose," Stein said.

Hallacy told the lawyers that he never expected in his career to rule on admitting an episode of "Family Guy." Calling the plan an "impeachment of your own creation," the judge told Heath she could not introduce the program.

Earlier Wednesday, pediatrician Colette Gushurst said she examined the girl on Aug. 19, 2014, and found she had herpes. Gushurst testified the girl told her she had anal intercourse with Estree.

"She volunteered that he gave her oral sex, too, and that is probably where I got the herpes," the doctor said.

During cross-examination by Joshua Blanchard, Gushurst said it's possible that the virus can be passed in ways other than sexually, "but it's not common."

The jury heard that the girl has type 1 herpes and that Estree was tested and has type 1 and type 2 herpes.

Before she left the witness stand, the girl insisted that many of the assaults happened when others were in the Estree house. She said that one night he assaulted her in the basement bedroom and then they both slept the night in that room.

Contact Trace Christenson at 966-0685 or tchrist@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TSChristenson.