A defendant facing indecent assault charges in two cases being tried together in Common Pleas Court testified Wednesday, March 19, that he did not inappropriately touch the alleged victims.

Shawn D. Berkstresser, 54, of Boyers, has been charged with indecent assault and other charges for allegedly inappropriately touching four women between 2017 and 2022, when three were minors and one was 18 years old. One case involves three alleged victims who testified Monday and the second case involves one alleged victim who testified Tuesday. The trial will resume Thursday when Berkstresser is expected to return to the witness stand.

Testimony Wednesday began with State Trooper Phillip Schneider, the lead investigator, continuing to read entries selected from a computer log Berkstresser kept of his daily activities that Schneider started reading Tuesday.

The entries include brief details about Berkstresser rubbing, massaging and scratching the three alleged victims in the fist case. Applying skin lotion on one of the alleged victims was noted in some entries. Some of entries say the alleged victims had sore muscles and skin problems. Some entries mention one of the alleged victims walking around the house naked or topless on several occasions, and another one of the alleged victims not wearing underwear under her clothes at times.

Berkstresser explained each of the entries and described the contact with the alleged victims as “comfortable” and not intimate.

He said the alleged victims came to him when they had physical problems and he would help and treat them. He said they would stand next to him while he worked on his computer and he would rub their legs while talking to them.

While testifying about one entry, he said one of the alleged victims was “hanging all over me” while he worked on his computer and he rubbed her back.

Berkstresser said one often asked him to massage her and another one would ask him to scratch her legs and back due to dry skin or eczema, and he would check her body for patches of dry or irritated skin, he said.

Discussions, in which the alleged victims participated, about sex and female body parts with the alleged victims were common, Berkstresser said. Several entries included descriptions of some of the alleged victims private parts.

He said he would notice when they were not wearing underwear under their clothes while he was rubbing or scratching them, and noted those instances in his log.

He also said he never touched the alleged victim in the second case.