Jury selection starts for decades-old child molesting
Jury selection started Monday for a Gary man charged with molesting a girl in the early 2000s.
Frederick Fenderson, 64, is charged with child molesting and sexual misconduct with a minor.
The victim, then 29, told a Fort Collins, Colorado detective in 2019 that Fenderson sexually assaulted her in Gary from age 7 to 14 around 2002 to 2005.
The trial is expected to open Tuesday morning.
East Chicago man charged with molesting girl
An East Chicago man is charged with sexually assaulting a child from 2006 to 2014 in Griffith.
Mark Ruiz, 62, is charged with nine counts of child molesting and one count of attempted child molesting.
He is in custody. The case was unsealed after his recent arrest. A court appearance was scheduled Monday.
The victim’s mother went to the Griffith Police station March 7 to report Ruiz had raped her now-adult daughter from age 3 to 8 after seeing her TikTok post where she revealed her perpetrator was still free.
Ruiz ultimately declined to speak with police.
mcolias@post-trib.com
