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NILES — It could be two months or more before a ruling is made in the criminal sexual conduct case against Buchanan attorney Lanny Fisher. The preliminary hearing in the case concluded Monday morning without a ruling on whether to proceed to trial after both attorneys asked for time to submit briefs.

        Fisher is facing 14 felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from claims that he pressured women clients for sexual favors in exchange for his representation. The case is being heard by Van Buren County District Judge Michael McKay after Berrien County judges recused themselves.

        The delay in a ruling is due to the time it takes to get a transcript of the two days of hearing and the three weeks given each side to submit briefs. Berrien County Prosecutor Steve Pierangeli is handling the case for the people, while Fisher is represented by Josh Blanchard and Melissa Freeman of Grand Rapids.

The hearing had begun Sept. 18 with four women testifying that Fisher had forced them to have sexual relations with them in exchange for his representation. Monday, Pierangeli called one more woman to testify, while Blanchard called one witness to counteract testimony given by one of the women in September.

Monday, a fifth woman testified that Fisher had forced her to perform oral sex as payment for his representation of her. She said that the incident occurred in the summer of 2020 when she went to Fisher to represent her in on a domestic violence charge.

The woman testified that she told Fisher she didn’t want to go to jail and he told her he was a really successful attorney and could keep her out of jail. The woman said Fisher was “flirty” with her and asked what else she could do for him when she said she couldn’t pay him upfront. When she asked him if he was asking for something sexual, she said he told her “you choose.”

“He was my ride home,” she said. “I didn’t know how to get out of the situation, I felt helpless. I had trusted him, he had sympathized with me about my family, I felt I had to do it. He said ‘help me and I’ll help you’. I felt vulnerable.”

Questioning from defense attorney Melissa Freeman attempted to get the witness to say that the sexual interaction was consensual and that the witness chose what kind of “favor” to do for Fisher. Freeman also questioned why the woman went back to Fisher to handle another case in 2021.

The witness said she went back to Fisher because he had handled the first case which was in the same courtroom with the same judge. As for whether she could have chose to do something else instead of a sexual favor, the woman said she felt like she didn’t have a choice.

Adam Prescott was called to testify by the defense that he had had a consensual sexual relationship in 2020 with one of the four women who testified in September. He said the woman accused him of raping her which he said was false.

Prescott then said that the woman and her husband showed up at his home to accuse him in front of his wife. He said he denied the allegations and the woman agreed that he had not forced himself on her.

On cross examination by Pierangeli, Prescott admitted that his wife had called the woman but said she had not threatened her. Police were called because the woman alleged his wife had harassed her. The incident ended when the officer told the woman and her husband to leave.

Fisher, 54, of Woodland in Buchanan, was arraigned in April when he pleaded not guilty in April to nine counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and four counts of misdemeanor prostitution related offenses.

The nine third-degree CSC counts include seven involving women he allegedly forced to have sex with him at his office and his home and two counts involving a female age 13 to 15. The maximum penalty for those offenses is 15 years in prison.

        The one fourth-degree CSC count involved sexual contact with a woman and is a high court misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

The four remaining misdemeanor counts allege that he did “being a male person, engage or offer to engage the services of another, not his or her spouse, for the purpose of prostitution, lewdness or assignation.” Those counts carry a maximum penalty of 93 days in jail.