By Helen Lounsbury
Bay City Times (Michigan)
Copyright 2007 Bay City Times
STANDISH, Mich. — A Standish paramedic accused of molesting an incapacitated teen during ambulance transport will face trial on four sexual misconduct charges, a judge ruled Tuesday.
David Spresny, 42, is charged with three first-degree sexual misconduct crimes. Each alleges that he digitally penetrated a 16-year-old girl after she was injured during a beach party near Alger.
A fourth felony charge alleges that Spresny inappropriately fondled the teen’s breasts during the trip. In all four counts, prosecutors allege that Spresny assaulted the girl while she was strapped to a backboard, conscious, in the back of an ambulance en route to a Standish hospital.
Spresny’s employer of 11 years, Saginaw-based Mobile Medical Response, suspended the paramedic shortly after his July arrest.
On Tuesday, Spresny appeared in Arenac District Court for an evidence hearing. Three Bay City investigators were among those who testified.
Spresny maintains his innocence. He told police that he removed the victim’s bathing suit and used a towel to clean her during treatment. He also told police that he checked the victim’s tailbone for injuries.
Police arrested Spresny July 12, four days after the teen complained she’d been groped during her 15-mile ambulance ride to the hospital. Police reported the ambulance had been dispatched after the girl suffered an accident at Arenac County’s Forest Lake. She complained of head and neck pain, witnesses testified Tuesday.
The alleged victim also testified. Her demeanor was shy and subdued throughout.
“Your dad was right there, a few feet from you?” Standish-based defense attorney Garner Dewey asked her, referring to her father’s presence in the ambulance front seat during the ride.
“Yes,” the girl answered.
“So you could have talked to your dad at any time?” Dewey asked.
“Yes,” she replied, adding, elsewhere in her testimony, “I was just scared at that point.”
The girl complained of nothing unusual until emergency room doctors and nurses questioned her, she testified. Hospital personnel grew suspicious when Spresny brought the girl into the emergency department nude, covered by a blanket, police testified.
Arenac District Judge Jack Scully, presiding Tuesday, ordered Spresny’s case to advance to Circuit Court for trial.
Scully ordered Spresny to appear at 9 a.m. Oct. 17 for arraignment. The former paramedic remains free after posting 10 percent of his $50,000 bond.