October 31- Day 8 the defense calls terpening's wife

We await details from Hastings, but Michael Terpening's wife has been on the stand today. This is an odd turn of events as Mrs. Terpening (we are not naming her) has faced questions of her own in the family court case as result of Terpening's allegedly propositioning people for threesomes with employees of Earth Services and possibly young men from the group who sent kids to do community service at Earth Services.

This seems a risky decision by the defense if only because Mrs. Terpening's testimony could harm her defense in the move by the State of Michigan to terminate her parental rights in the still pending family court case. Simply put if Terpening is convicted Mrs. Terpening could still proceed to keep their 3 natural and 5 adopted kids by making a deal with the state.

The big questions are what will Mrs. Terpening say when the Assistant Attorney General gets her chance to talk to a Terpening under oath? Will her testimony backfire in the family court case still pending to terminate her rights? If Terpening is guilty why in the world would he take this chance with his wife and kids?

UPDATE: Today, Mrs. Terpening tried to explain away the presence of Michael Terpening's DNA at one of the 3 scenes involving young people from the Earth Services House Next Door program. She testified she had sex with Mike, Mike wiped his semen on a napkin and threw it away. This would seem to explain the presence of Terpening's DNA on the napkin found in the trash. Her testimony does not explain the presence of the young man's DNA on the beer bottle, the cigar and the young man's semen at the location along with Michael Terpening's DNA.

UPDATE 5:46 PM- You'll see the comment below about Linda Timmons testifying for Terpening. What happened was Linda Timmons told the assistant attorney general in front of the jury, "You better watch yourself."

Mike Timmons the esteemed Assyria Township supervisor testified for Michael Terpening only to later admit he used his elected position to influence the Barry County Prosecutor's office by engaging other politicos in Barry County.

The defense announced in court, today, that Michael Terpening will testify tomorrow.