BLOOMINGTON - Several co-workers of former police officer Jeff Pelo testified Wednesday about their role in investigations of the four sexual assaults that Pelo is charged with committing between 2002 and 2005. | Audio analysis: What to expect in Week 3 | Special section: Court documents, audio, story archive | Tuesday's action: Three of four alleged rape victims testify

Bloomington Detective Tommy Walters helped collect evidence from the four crime scenes.

He testified that attempts were made to collect fingerprints suitable for testing from several items. Prints were found on a phone and a window screen from the apartment of a woman raped in late January 2005, but Walters did not disclose if the prints matched Pelo's.

Defense lawyer Michael Rosenblat told the jury in opening remarks that the state has no fingerprints that match his client's.

Pelo, a 18-year veteran of the Bloomington department, is charged with sexually assaulting four women in their east-side Bloomington homes. He also is accused of stalking a woman between 2005 and 2006.

Rosenblat was successful in keeping several pieces of testimony away from jurors Wednesday after he argued that the material was prejudicial and unrelated to the specific charges against Pelo.

With the jurors outside the courtroom, Detective Michael Fazio told Associate Judge Robert Freitag about comments Pelo allegedly made regarding a young female dispatcher.

Fazio could not recall the specific remarks, but said Pelo's demeanor changed during the conversation. The detective, who works with the cybercrimes unit, said: "I saw him as a perpetrator. It disturbed me enough that I had to leave. I was afraid of the consequences if someone else had seen it," Fazio said of the conversation at the police department.

Freitag excluded the testimony, saying it was not relevant to the charges.

Freitag also sided with Rosenblat concerning the testimony of a Heyworth man who said he overheard Pelo talking on a cell phone in 2003 at a Little League baseball game. Their sons played baseball together.

The jury did not hear Leo Worth's testimony that Pelo was responding to accusations from the caller that he was stalking the caller.

"I'm not stalking you. I'm not harassing you," Worth said he heard Pelo tell the caller.

The testimony was discussed without the jury in the courtroom.

What prosecutors describe as Pelo's habit of following young women and gathering information about them was the focus of testimony Wednesday morning.

Prosecutor Sandy Thompson said the state intends to show a pattern of behavior that included following women to their homes and using police resources to put together personal data about them and their families.

A woman allegedly stalked by Pelo after he issued an underage drinking citation to her in 2002 testified that she saw the former sergeant in the parking lot of her apartment complex about 15 times. Pelo was in his squad car, she said.

Pelo has not been charged in connection with the woman.

In April 2003, the woman said Pelo and a second officer gave her and a girlfriend a ride in their squad car to the women's car in downtown Bloomington. Pelo pointed out her car and recited the license number without prompting, she said.

The woman's father told the jury that he called the police department and spoke to Pelo after his daughter told him about her concerns. He said he warned Pelo to stop following his daughter or "I would come to see him and I would make sure the trip wasn't wasted."

Roseblat complained to Frietag that prosecutors Thompson and Mark Messman are trying to tie Pelo to attempted break-ins that are not related to the charges facing the 43-year-old former officer.

"Every prowler, every peeping Tom in this county is not relevant to Mr. Pelo," Roseblat told the judge.

So far a total of 32 witnesses from a list of 115 potential witnesses have testified.