FAIRVIEW (AP) ? Jury selection is under way in the trial of a former Custer County sheriff accused of sexually abusing female inmates and drug court participants.
Jury selection began Monday for former Sheriff Mike Burgess, who has pleaded not guilty to 36 charges of rape, rape by instrumentation, kidnapping, sexual battery and oral sodomy. Testimony could begin as early as Tuesday.
In August, a judge bound Burgess over for trial after several female drug court defendants testified Burgess threatened to send them to prison if they didn't comply with his sexual demands.
Burgess was a member of a drug court panel that decides which offenders are allowed in the rehabilitation program and which offenders go to prison.
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