OTTAWA COUNTY — Earlier victims of Greg Joseph DuJardine testified in the course of the second day of his trial Wednesday, Jan. 15, in a continuing to find out whether or not he targeted a third woman in September.
DuJardine, 60, is charged with second-degree felony sexual conduct inflicting harm, and as a fourth offense ordinary offender. His trial below Choose Jon Hulsing in Ottawa County’s twentieth Circuit Courtroom started with opening statements Tuesday, going down simply 4 months after the alleged assault.
DuJardine, of Muskegon, has two earlier convictions for related assaults relationship again to the Nineteen Eighties, according to reporting from WOOD TV-8.
Extra: ‘Always space in her memory’: West Olive sexual assault trial begins with opening statements
In 1986, DuJardine was discovered responsible of second-degree felony sexual conduct after, in line with court docket paperwork, an worker at a self-service gasoline station in Grand Haven was looking for her automobile keys and DuJardine assaulted her. He was sentenced to 2-15 years in jail.
In 1989, DuJardine was discovered responsible of first-degree CSC after raping a park attendant in Ottawa County. Based on court docket paperwork obtained by WOOD, DuJardine hit the park attendant over the pinnacle in July 1988 earlier than assaulting her in a storage room in Ferrysburg.
Greg Joseph DuJardine seems across the courtroom on Tuesday, Jan. 14, in Grand Haven.
He was sentenced to life behind bars for that assault, and commenced his sentence on Sept. 18, 1989, in line with the Michigan Division of Corrections.
Jurors heard testimony from each victims Wednesday, recalling their very own assaults. The Sentinel doesn’t title victims of sexual assault.
The sufferer from 1988 remembered seeing a automobile within the parking zone of North Seashore Park, the place she labored. She discovered it odd as a result of it was early within the morning.
Whereas working in a storage room related to the bogs on the park, she noticed a person stroll previous the open door. He returned moments later, asking the girl for a software. When she turned to look within the nook the person had gestured to, he struck her with a “screwdriver-like object,” inflicting her to fall to the bottom.
“He seems loads totally different now,” she instructed the court docket Wednesday. “The eyes look the identical.”
Based on MDOC, DuJardine was granted parole in January 2024 — a complete of 34 years into his life sentence. The alleged assault in West Olive, for which he stands trial now, passed off solely 9 months later.
Greg Joseph DuJardine sits within the courtroom on Tuesday, Jan. 14, in Grand Haven.
The sufferer in the latest case, 24, testified she was at Duncan Woods in Grand Haven having a picnic with a good friend when she observed a automobile enter the parking zone. When she left Duncan Woods, she stated, the identical automobile adopted her to US-31.
She was touring south on US-31 when, in line with police, DuJardine’s automobile struck her bumper close to Lake Michigan Drive. In his testimony, additionally given Wednesday, DuJardine claimed he was fixing his AC settings when he rolled into the again of the sufferer’s automobile.
He allegedly adopted the sufferer till she pulled right into a gasoline station. She testified she thought he may wish to file a police report for the accident.
After each drivers exited their autos, the sufferer stated, DuJardine assaulted her, touching her inappropriately, laying his head on her chest, and slapping her throughout the face after she fought him off.
The sufferer referred to as police and videotaped whereas DuJardine fled in his automobile, driving above 90 miles per hour and working a cease signal, in line with testimony. The lady suffered minor accidents and was handled on the scene by paramedics with AMR Ambulance.
DuJardine was taken into custody Sept. 9 and initially jailed in Muskegon County for violating his parole. After his arrest, detectives introduced the case to the Ottawa County Prosecutor’s Workplace. Formal costs have been licensed Sept. 19, and DuJardine was taken to the Ottawa County Jail, the place he stays below a bond of $500,000.
DuJardine, for his half, stated he by no means inappropriately touched the sufferer, claiming he put a relaxing hand on her shoulder. He stated, when he reached his hand to shake hers, she slapped him. He stated he retaliated with a slap in self-defense.
He claimed he left the scene as a result of he was “terrified” by her declare that he groped her.
Assistant Prosecuting Lawyer Britta Girmscheid speaks in the course of the trial of Greg Joseph DuJardine in January 2025.
“The prior convictions I had beforehand in my life about 40 years in the past … I didn’t imagine anybody would imagine any of this,” DuJardine stated Wednesday.
When he was cross-examined by the prosecution, he stated the accusation “petrified me and simply scared me to dying.”
When requested by the protection if he’d probably by accident touched the sufferer’s vaginal space whereas reaching out his hand, he stated he was “fairly constructive” he didn’t.
DuJardine did not deny his earlier convictions. The prosecution requested what he stands to achieve if he retains denying the sufferer’s claims.
“I acquire the reality,” he stated. “I didn’t contact her.”
“However the different women, you probably did?”
“Sure,” DuJardine stated. “I used to be younger.”
In closing arguments, the prosecution identified similarities between the 1988 assault and the incident Sept. 8, together with asking for a software and inflicting a automobile accident to achieve entry.
Based on his GPS monitoring system, DuJardine spent two hours at Grand Haven Seashore earlier than driving to Duncan Woods, the place he spent about quarter-hour earlier than forsaking the sufferer. Prosecutors imagine he spent these hours in search of a sufferer, and located one at Duncan Woods.
The protection, of their closing, attacked the sufferer’s credibility by noting her energetic TikTok account, which had over 200K followers. On the day of the incident, she posted video of DuJardine fleeing the scene adopted by “storytime” about what occurred.
The morning of the preliminary listening to, the sufferer posted a video displaying her prepping to testify in court docket. Based on her testimony, the sufferer’s TikTok account is a part of her common earnings.
The jury started deliberations Wednesday, and is anticipated to proceed Thursday.
— Cassidey Kavathas is the politics and court docket reporter at The Holland Sentinel. Contact her at ckavathas@hollandsentinel.com. Comply with her on Twitter @cassideykava.
This text initially appeared on The Holland Sentinel: West Olive assault trial enters second day with victim testimony
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