Former Correctional Officer Cory Jordan Fisher Sr. faces life in prison after a jury convicted him today of molesting all three of his sons, two of them for many years.
The jury found Fisher guilty of all eight sexual assault counts involving his two adopted sons and one count of molesting his youngest son when the boy was 10 years old. He also was convicted of battery with serious bodily injury on his second-oldest son, John Doe Two. He was 18 when Fisher attacked him, breaking his nose and shattering his eye socket.
Jurors acquitted Fisher, 31, of all charges that he sexually assaulted three jail inmates while working as a correctional officer in the summer of 2017. Two of those inmates received settlements from the county, one for $200,000 and the other for $25,000.
Outside the courtroom Angela Fisher, Cory Fisher’s estranged wife and mother of the abused boys, cried as she said how thankful she was.
“I want to tell the jury thank you for taking time out of their lives,” she said, adding she was grateful that the case turned out the way it did.
“This has been the worst two years of our lives,” she said, and now the family is ready to move forward and begin to heal.
One of the victims, 20-year-old Doe Two, was in the courtroom with his mother when the verdicts were read. He did not want to comment afterward.
Fisher stared straight ahead as the court clerk read the “guilty” verdicts, one after another.
The nine-man, three-woman jury deliberated about eight hours over two days before reaching their decision shortly before noon today. Outside the courtroom, the jury foreman declined comment on the main issues they discussed.
“I think (the verdict) speaks for itself,” he said.
Jurors heard 10 days of often-wrenching testimony, including explicit accounts of forced oral copulation and sodomy with young children.
“I would encourage you, if you are having trouble processing this, to talk with a spiritual adviser or therapist,” Judge Timothy Canning told the jurors before discharging them this afternoon.
At the request of Deputy Conflict Counsel David Lee, representing Fisher, the court clerk polled the jury individually.
“Was the verdict and special findings as read your individual verdict?” she asked each of them. All said yes.
In addition to the eight sexual assault verdicts, on five of those counts the jury found true the special allegation that Fisher had multiple victims.
Fisher is scheduled to be sentenced April 30 and is looking at a maximum sentence of life.
The former officer was 18 when he married then 30-year-old Angela Fisher, who had two young sons. The two became acquainted because Cory Fisher was the oldest son’s Little League coach. The two sons testified they were happy at first to have a dad who provided a home for them and their mother. But then Fisher’s explosive temper emerged, and extreme physical abuse began.
The boys said Fisher would back-hand them, throw objects at their heads, stomp on their toes. They were thrown against walls. Fisher punched their mother and broke her nose while she was pregnant with their youngest brother.
Then the horrific sexual abuse started, first with Doe One, now 23, and then with Doe Two.
Does One and Two said Fisher convinced them no-one would believe them if they reported the abuse.
Defense attorney Lee argued the boys fabricated their stories to get back at Fisher for the years of physical abuse, and as a way to finally get him out of the house. The sons said Fisher had always managed to convince their mother to let him stay. She filed for divorce after her sons told her what Fisher had done to them.
As for the inmates who claimed they were assaulted, none of them reported the incidents until after Fisher had been arrested for child molestation. It also came out during testimony that Inmate One, who claimed Fisher forced him to orally copulate him while holding a Taser to his head, had been scheming for some time on how to extort money from the county.
The jury acquitted Fisher of not only the charge of forced oral copulation but of all accusations of sexual battery. All three prisoners testified Fisher had groped them. The jury also had the option of convicting Fisher on the lesser offense of simple battery but found him not guilty.
Because the gag order on the case remains in place until after the sentencing, neither Lee nor Deputy District Attorney Stacey Eads, who prosecuted Fisher, were able to comment on the verdicts.
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Former Humboldt County correctional officer Cory Fisher was convicted of molesting and abusing three minor children by a jury this afternoon.
At the same time, the jury acquitted Fisher of sexually assaulting three adult inmates under his care.
Fisher could face a sentence of life in prison.
The Outpost’s Rhonda Parker will have a full story on the verdict later today.
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PREVIOUSLY:
- FISHER TRIAL, DAY ONE: Soldier Testifies to a Decade of Abuse at the Hands of Former Corrections Officer, Accused Child Molester Cory Fisher
- FISHER TRIAL, DAY TWO: Former Correctional Officer’s Ex-Wife Describes the Accused Molester Physically Assaulting Victim
- FISHER TRIAL, DAY THREE I: Second Man Testifies That Former Correctional Officer Drugged, Beat and Molested Him as a Child
- FISHER TRIAL, DAY THREE II: An Alleged Child Victim Takes the Stand; The Accused’s Attorney Lays Groundwork For a Defense
- FISHER TRIAL, DAY FOUR I: Accused Child Molester’s Close Friend Took Abuse Allegations to Eureka Police
- FISHER TRIAL, DAY FOUR II: ‘I Was Scared’: Youngest Victim of Accused Child Molester Details Abuse He and His Brothers Suffered
- FISHER TRIAL, DAY FIVE: Inmate Testifies That Former Correctional Officer Touched Him Inappropriately, Generally Behaved in Odd and Lewd Fashion
- FISHER TRIAL, DAY FIVE: Second Inmate, Who Has Known the Accused Since Childhood, Says That Former Jailer Sexually Assaulted Him in His Sleep
- FISHER TRIAL: Expert Witness Tells Jurors Why Children Don’t Always Report Abuse
- FISHER TRIAL: Inmate Testifies for the Defense of Accused Correctional Officer; Says Fellow Inmates Made Up Stories to Frame Fisher
- FISHER TRIAL: Estranged Wife, Youngest Alleged Victim Give Jury Different Timelines About When She Was Told of Abuse
- FISHER TRIAL: Prosecution, Defense Make Their Closing Arguments in Sexual Assault Trial of Former Correctional Officer
- FISHER TRIAL: Closing Arguments Have Ended and the Case is With the Jury
- FISHER TRIAL: Verdict Expected This Afternoon in Former Correctional Officer’s Child Molestation Case