May 12—ANDERSON — Two separate juries found two local men not guilty of child molesting charges.
Jurors Wednesday found David Punch not guilty of child molesting and Dennis Mickow not guilty of a Class A felony charge of child molesting and a mistrial on a Class C child molesting charge.
The jury deliberated for approximately 35 minutes Wednesday before returning the not guilty verdict in the case filed against David Punch.
The girl testified that a letter she wrote stating another man had molested her was a lie written at the direction of Punch.
She testified she wrote the letter knowing it was a lie.
“I didn’t like him,” she said when asked by defense attorney Bryan Williams why she made up the allegations.
Williams also questioned her on whether the incidents took place on one night or two nights as she said during a Kids Talk interview and her testimony.
“I remember it happening one night,” she testified.
During questioning by deputy prosecutor Samantha Green, the girl said no other man touched her.
Mickow, 65, Fortville, was charged in 2019, after a 16-year-old girl reported to authorities that Mickow had raped and molested her when she was about 9 and in the first or second grade of school, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The girl was interviewed at Kids Talk and said she didn’t tell anyone what had happened when she was little, according to the affidavit. She said the first time she was molested she was in the first grade, but it continued until she was in the second grade.
She said Mickow offered to pay her $20 to pull her shirt up when she was in the fourth grade, according to the affidavit.
Follow Ken de la Bastide on Twitter @KendelaBastide, or call 765-640-4863.