Jury deliberations got underway Wednesday in Oakland County Circuit Court in a case against a subdeacon of a Troy church charged with sexually assaulting a teen altar boy.

Hurmiz Ishak, 66 of Sterling Heights, faces three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving a boy who was 14 at the time of the alleged assaults — said to have occurred in 2017 and 2018 at St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church on Big Beaver Road. The jury can also consider the charges to be third-degree if they decide Ishak wasn’t in a position of authority over the alleged victim.

The Oakland Press is not naming the victim due to the nature of the alleged crimes.

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During the trial, which began late last week, jurors saw Ishak’s interview with a Troy police detective where he admitted to participating in some sexual activity with the teen boy at the church. He also said he did some of the acts at the boy’s request.

The boy testified Monday, describing sexual activity with Ishak which he subsequently reported to church officials in October 2018, who then contacted Troy police. Among the other witnesses jurors heard from were two other alleged victims of Ishak, a teenage girl and an adult woman, who both claim Ishak acted inappropriately with them at the church. The adult woman was a teenager at the time, and was reportedly advised by her mother to keep the allegations to herself because otherwise she’d be ostracized and “treated like damaged goods” by the Chaldean community.

Judge Phyllis McMillen, overseeing the trial, ordered that none of the witnesses were to be identified or photographed by the media.

Closing statements

In his closing statement Tuesday, assistant prosecutor Christopher George described Ishak as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” — as he did in his opening statement last week.

“The defendant used his position in the church to exploit (three young people),” George said, adding that the alleged victims gained nothing by coming forward but rather risked their families’ reputations due to the “shamed-based (Chaldean) culture (that considers it) taboo to talk about sexual abuse.”

George also noted Ishak’s admission to police, telling the jury “that should be the end of your analysis right there."

“Why would (the teen boy) make these things up...why would he say these things? What does he have to gain?” George said.

Yet defense attorney Jalal Dallo said the prosecutor’s case was “not as clear-cut as the prosecutor wants you to believe.”

“This case, it doesn’t add up. It doesn’t,” Dallo said.

Dallo said there's a lack of evidence — including DNA, fingerprints and surveillance video — to support the claims, and asserted that the teenage boy fabricated his allegations, possibly to move forward with a civil suit and realize monetary reward if Ishak is convicted. He also maintained that a language barrier interfered with Ishak’s interview with police, and said offering a translator via a speaker phone was inadequate. Further, he accused the detective who interviewed Ishak as using lies and manipulation to get “any confession.”

“Her desire to seek the truth...was feeble,” he said.

Dallo called the boy’s claims “mythical,” and noted discrepancies in the sequence of events he testified to.

George countered by noting that more than a year has passed since the alleged crimes began and said children can have difficulty with timelines. He also said the prosecution is under no obligation to establish dates of an alleged offense.

George also discounted claims that Ishak misspoke during his police interview due to trouble with English. While he needed translations “a couple times,” there was “nothing to indicate he didn’t understand anything,” George said.

Ishak reportedly moved to the United States from Iraq in the 1970s.

According to church officials, subdeacons aren’t considered clergy, aren’t ordained and aren’t allowed to perform sacraments. Rather, they are “essentially altar servers with more responsibilities,” said Jonathan Francis, communications and safe environments director, St. Thomas the Apostle Chaldean Catholic Eparchy, USA.

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