Judge Meryl Wilson called the case to order at nine o’clock that morning, and Prosecuting State Attorney, Barry Disney called the first witness to the stand-the young eight year old alleged victim in the case. The young girl said she used to live in Manhattan, but now lives in California.The young girl said Ferenz begged her numerous times to take a shower with her, and eventually she did. He then begged her to not get dressed, and had her lay down with him.
After the incident, Ferenz reportedly asked her to not tell anyone, as it was a secret, but the girl told her mother about it the next day.
Ferenz’s Attorney, Scott Toth from Olathe, asked the young girl questions about where she lives and how school is going, as she is now in the third grade. He then said I’m going to ask you questions about the “yucky stuff” that happened.
The girl answered all of Ferenz’s questions, and indicated she was never bribed to do anything with Ferenz. “I wanted to take a shower all by myself and get dressed, but he kept saying ‘please’ so I said ‘fine’ “.
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Mrs. Ferenz (name witheld at request of attorney) was the next witness to be questioned. She is Ferenz’s ex-wife and the young girl’s mother.
She identified the young girl’s father, who was sitting in the audience in the courtroom, and her ex-husband-Ferenz. She shared dates of when she met Ferenz-including their wedding date in September of 2009.
According to her, after Ferenz returned home from deployment to Afghanistan, things were different. She claimed they had fights about finances, and she once threatened to leave with the young girl.
The morning after the incident took place, the mother stated she knew something was wrong when her daughter was wearing the wrong clothes. She shared the routine her and her daughter did everyday, which included laying out clothes for her daughter. When asked where the clothes were that her mother had laid out, the girl said she wore them yesterday after she took a shower in her mother’s bathroom. The mother claimed she found this odd as well, as the young girl always showers in the bathroom in the hallway.
She was able to get the young girl to tell her exactly what happened. After hearing about the incident, she retreated to a different room to call her parents about what to do. She then took her daughter to the police.
A picture was shown of the items she found in the dryer that same day-a towel, a skirt, and underwear. She stated the defendant never did laundry, and there were numerous other items of clothing needing to be washed as well.
Toth cross-examined the mother by asking her for details about what happened after the allegations surfaced. She stated she sold most of the items within the home, in order to afford leaving Kansas. She also described details of the family’s finances and reasons for her and Ferenz’s divorce. She then shared information about a Facebook message she found on Ferenz’s account. Due to the content of the message, she said she began to worry he was having an affair with a female soldier.
Mrs. Ferenz stated during the questioning that the young girl had never seen her husband and her (Mrs. Ferenz) being intimate. Toth had her read her original statement, as it claimed the exact opposite was true. Toth concluded the questioning by asking if she wanted her ex-husband to be convicted on these charges. She replied, “no”.
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Registered Nurse, Joy Thomas took the stand. Thomas has been a nurse at Stormont Vail in Topeka for 25 years. She performed the sexual assault examination on the young girl on October 22nd, 2012.
Thomas said she began the examination by visiting with the young girl and then asked her to label a body part chart. After labeling, they went through touched, and which were okay and not okay.
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Forensic Examiner, Richard Nixon identified pictures of hardware information taken from the computers which were located in Ferenz’s home. The pictures were of long file names that someone had downloaded on a “C” drive of a computer.
The file names indicated the things downloaded were pictures, which were more than likely child pornography.
Toth questioned Nixon about the file names, and pointed out that considering you cannot view the picture, it is unclear of what exactly the pictures would display. Toth also added, “we don’t know how, when or who downloaded these images”.
