Morgan County couple indicted on multiple sex offenses 10 years after complaint

Nov. 12--More than 10 years after a school resource officer contacted then-Sheriff's Investigator Ana Franklin about a student with bruises and "choke-hold" marks, two Morgan County parents have been indicted on 19 sexual assault and abuse charges.

Michael and Lisa Lesher were booked at the Morgan County Jail late Tuesday night, jail records show. Franklin said the couple was living in Georgia when arrested.

Michael Lesher, 52, is charged with four counts of first-degree sodomy, two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, second-degree rape and incest. He is being held in Morgan County Jail with bail set at $435,000.

Lisa Lesher, 38, is charged with four counts of first-degree sodomy, two counts of first-degree rape, sexual torture, sexual abuse and second-degree sodomy. She is being held in Morgan County Jail with bail set at $465,000.

The indictment handed down in September says the Leshers sodomized, raped and sexually abused and tortured at least two family members.

Franklin, who is now the Morgan County sheriff, said this was the last open case from her time as an investigator with the Sheriff's Office.

"Before I died, I wanted to see this day that they (the Leshers) were in custody," Franklin said. "Those kids were always in the back of my mind. I think everyone who does this has that one case they really want to see come to justice."

Though she is glad to have an arrest on her last open case, Tuesday was not a day of celebration, she said.

"There's nothing happy about it," Franklin said. "It's not like you finish a narcotics case and everyone gives a high five when you get a good result. All it means is that this person has had to go through all this. It's a relief I think for the victims to get to tell their story and be believed by the grand jury."

Franklin said the case remained open because it was in the best interest of the victims. Due to trauma, the victims were unable to testify, she said. At the time, all the victims were children.

"We had to make sure to consider the victims and not to further traumatize or hurt them any more than they had been. All that was put into consideration at that time," she said. "It's hard to let a case like that down."

The Department of Human Resources conducted an investigation after the 15-year-old with visible marks and bruises was reported to authorities, Franklin said. The children were removed from the Lesher home, she said. The Leshers lost their parental rights after a civil hearing in 2008, Franklin said.

The investigation was reactivated in 2015 when one of the victims, who is now an adult, contacted Franklin because she wanted to talk about what Michael and Lisa Lesher allegedly did to her. In 2016, another victim did the same.

Since there is no statute of limitations for cases of rape, violent sexual abuse, sexual abuse with the threat of violence, or any sexual abuse involving a victim under the age of 16 in Alabama, Franklin got the investigation back on its feet.

All the evidence, interview notes and statements were still available.

"It was a very long, very difficult, drawn-out case. We started over again. We had the things we had from then, and we added to them. We re-interviewed the two victims who were willing and wanted to come forward and see this case brought to justice."

The case, based on the testimony of the two victims, was presented to a Morgan County grand jury. Franklin said there were other victims, but charges were only filed based on the two victims who came forward in the past two years.

"I've seen kids thankful to be able to tell their stories and have someone believe them and to say this is what happened to me," Franklin said. "That was definitely their mood after the indictment. There's no motivation for coming forward other than they need closure for themselves, especially when it's years afterward."

Decatur defense attorney Brian White said the reasons many victims wait for years to come forward are complicated.

"If it's a violent assault accompanied by medical intervention, those come to light pretty rapidly," White said. "If it's an adult or teenager, there may be a lot of complex reasons. Not wanting to disturb the status quo in their home, believing that a powerful individual in the workplace can do them harm or, depending on the age of the victim, they may not know the vocabulary."

If a victim does not make allegations until years after the assault, the integrity of their story must be questioned, he said. But some victims, especially children, can't often explain why they didn't tell someone sooner.

"In a lot of the cases, if it involves a child, they don't just go to the first policeman they see or the first teacher. It tends to just sort of come out spontaneously sometime later," White said. "You ask, 'Why didn't you tell me before?' The child says, 'I don't know.' Sometimes that's the best a child can do."

White said many Alabamians are asking the same questions about the sexual assault allegations against U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore. If the alleged attacker is a parent or someone in power, that can keep a victim from being open immediately after the sexual encounter, he said.

"This disclosure came nearly 40 years later," White said, referring to the allegations against Moore. "I don't know these people's station in life at the time, but an assistant district attorney can be viewed as a very powerful person. People have an outside view of how powerful lawyers are."

Moore has denied the accusations.

Franklin said she investigated other child sex abuse cases where the victim does not come forward about the abuse until they are adults.

"Most of the time, in these cases, the fear is nobody will believe them because that's what they're told so many times. All those things, along with the guilt, the shame and the fright. It's very, very difficult," Franklin said.

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