On Friday, Jan. 17, a Common Pleas Court jury will resume deliberating the fate of a Harmony man charged with sexually assaulting a juvenile girl when she was 7 to 12 years old between 1995 and 2000.

Deliberations began late Thursday afternoon after prosecution and defense attorneys presented closing arguments and Judge Joseph Kubit instructed the jury.

The state attorney general’s office charged Shaun Sheffer, 46, with rape, rape of a mentally disabled person, rape of a person under 13 years old, indecent assault of a person under 13, indecent assault of a person with a mental disability, indecent assault and corruption of minors.

The alleged victim, who is now 36, testified Monday, saying Sheffer raped her 30 to 50 times. She said she is autistic. Sheffer did not testify.

Sheffer is one of 14 members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses across the state who were charged by the attorney general’s office in 2023 with sexually assaulting minors.

“This case is full of reasonable doubt,” defense attorney Benjamin Steinberg said in his closing argument.

There is no physical or medical evidence to support the charges, and the only witness is the woman, Steinberg said.

Citing testimony from other members of the Sheffer family and friends, Steinberg said seven people lived in the small house where the alleged assaults occurred, but no one saw Sheffer assault the girl even though it allegedly occurred multiple times over five years.

Brandon Sheffer, one of Sheffer’s three younger brothers, hated him and “pushed the narrative” that Shaun raped the girl, Steinberg said.

Brandon Sheffer told their mother, other brothers and the church about the allegations, reported the allegations to the attorney general’s office and participated by phone when agents interviewed the woman, Steinberg said.

According to testimony, Brandon Sheffer and his wife called an attorney general’s office tipline after the office issued a news release in February 2023 about sexual assault charges being filed against Jehovah’s Witnesses members across the state.

Steinberg said Shaun Sheffer did not have the opportunity to commit multiple assaults because he worked 8 to 10 hours a day during the time period in question, but Brandon Sheffer was at the house.

“Garbage,” is how deputy attorney general Alicia Werner described the argument that Shaun Sheffer didn’t have the opportunity to commit an assault. She said he lived there and had the opportunity.

Abuse occurs in private, and there are never witnesses, Werner said.

None of people who testified that they heard the allegations asked the woman about it, she said.

“No one cared enough to ask. They either knew or didn’t want to know,” Werner said.

The defendant’s father, another brother, relatives and family friends testified that they heard about the allegations, but didn’t ask the woman about it.

“The family is divided over this secret,” Werner said.

She said many of those witnesses said the woman is easily manipulated as an adult, but the alleged assaults took place when she was a child.

As a child, the woman trusted those who were around her and due to her disability she wasn’t able to determine that what was happening to her was wrong, Werner said.

She said Brandon Sheffer stood up for the woman.

“No good deed goes unpunished,” Werner said.

She said the woman testified before a grand jury, at a preliminary hearing and Monday during the trial without Brandon Sheffer present.

The woman — not Brandon Sheffer — testified about details of being raped and sexually assaulted in different rooms in the house, Werner said.

She said Brandon Sheffer told his mother the girl told him that Shaun Sheffer raped her, but she didn’t believe him.