Frank Sullivan, 23, faces four counts of rape and two counts each of gross sexual imposition and sexual battery.
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Sullivan isn’t a current student, Wittenberg leaders said Tuesday.
During opening arguments Tuesday morning, Clark County Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Hoying laid out a timeline of the alleged sexual assaults for the jury.
“This is a serious matter,” Hoying said.
The accusations of sexual assaults aren’t to be taken lightly, she said.
“It’s an important matter for the victims and our communities,” Hoying said.
The case involves the three women’s claims of sexual assault from August 2015 through March 2016, she said.
Alcohol played a role in some of the cases, Hoying said.
Sullivan’s defense lawyer, Scott Croswell, told the jury there are inconsistencies in each victim’s story and they are uncorroborated claims.
“We are not here to guess or speculate,” Croswell told the jury in his opening argument.
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Text messages that include Sullivan asking some of the victims for nude photos and other sexual advances were read by Croswell in his opening argument.
“He may be guilty of rude behavior,” the attorney argued, but said evidence in the case will fail to show any criminal offenses occurred.
Sullivan was indicted by a Clark County grand jury in the case in April. Since then he has been able to stay out of jail without bond on the conditions that he surrender his passport, submit a DNA sample to Springfield police and not have any contact with his accusers.
Both the prosecution and defense brought up in court a secret society on Wittenberg’s campus that the victims and Sullivan were involved in called the Gnomes.
The secret society was a drinking club, they described, and some of the accusations against Sullivan happened after days and nights of drinking.
Wittenberg leaders acknowledged the unofficial social groups on campus at the time of Sullivan’s arrest, but said the groups weren’t registered student organizations.
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