A six-member jury in New London Superior Court will begin deliberating Tuesday in the sexual assault trial of former Lisbon resident Douglas R. Crossley Jr.

Crossley, 40, now of Mechanicsville, Va., is charged with five counts of risk of injury to a minor. He is accused of sexually touching five underage girls between 2005 and 2010. The alleged victims baby-sat for Doug and Danay Crossleys' three daughters or visited their home at 23 Lee Road during parties he threw for family and friends.

Four of the five young women were in the courtroom, along with Crossley, his wife Danay and their daughters, for closing arguments Monday.

"What you have before you is five individuals who testified under oath that the defendant touched their intimate parts," argued prosecutor Theresa Anne Ferryman. She said it was a household full of teenage girls who were permitted to drink alcohol while Crossley was "grabbing, groping and touching" them.

"Whether or not the girls put up with this, allowed this to go on so they could go to the house, drink or have their boyfriends over, the defendant is the adult," Ferryman said. "It doesn't matter whether the girls agreed to it."

One of the accusations involved a incident in Crossley's bedroom in which he allegedly provided the victim with alcohol and a Klonipin anti-anxiety pill, then performed a sex act on one of the teens while his wife also touched her sexually. The state initially charged Crossley with second-degree sexual assault of a helpless person due to the teen's drugged state, but at the request of the defense, Judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed dismissed that charge. The judge ruled the state did not provide sufficient evidence to prove the teen, who had walked out of the bedroom, was physically helpless. 

During his closing argument, defense attorney Thomas A. Pavilinic used a Powerpoint presentation to convince the jury the teens were lying about the dates of the incidents to make it look like they were underage. He said the investigation started after one of the girls had an argument with Crossley and that the alleged victims could not "take back" the accusations once the investigation started. He mentioned repeatedly that the life of that first alleged victim has been "characterized by drug and alcohol abuse, huffing (inhaling substances) and car wrecks."

Pavlinic said for seven years, nobody said anything.

"Do you think five teenagers could keep a secret for seven years about abuse? I don't think teens could keep secrets for seven minutes," Pavlinic said.

The defense portrayed Crossley as a hardworking family man and called several character witnesses to vouch for him. Crossley testified that he operated a mortgage origination business before the housing market collapsed and now works for a car dealership.

But Ferryman said that every time she asked Crossley a question during her cross examination, "they (the defense) had to sneak in something poisonous about the defendants."

She asked the jury to make their decision based on the facts and the applicable law.

"There's a lot of possibility to have sympathy in this room," she said, noting the presence of Crossley's daughters.

k.florin@theday.com