BLOOMINGTON - Former police sergeant Jeff Pelo attempted to access an evidence storage area and may have used department-issued gloves and scarves during the sexual assaults of four women, according to statements Monday at Pelo's rape trial. | Audio analysis: What to expect this week

According to entries in a 99-page report detailing Pelo's movements within the police department between 2003 and 2006, he tried twice in 2005 to gain entry to the department's long-term evidence storage room. Pelo also attempted twice on Feb. 14, 2005, to gain access to the information systems room, according to testimony from Daryl Somogyi, the Bloomington police staff member in charge of access control.

The former officer was not able to enter the areas under the access rules for his rank and job duties, Somogyi testified in McLean County Circuit Court.

Pelo is on trial accused of four sexual assaults of women in their east-side Bloomington homes between 2002 and 2005. He also is accused of stalking a woman between 2005 and 2006. His presence outside the alleged stalking victim's home on June 10, 2006, led to an investigation of Pelo as a suspect in the unsolved rapes.

Pelo said he was looking for a home for his mother-in-law when police stopped him shortly after midnight near the home. The house was not for sale at the time.

The access report also indicates that Pelo went to the Emergency Response Unit work room seven times between February 2004 and July 2005.

Defense attorney Michael Rosenblat objected to the report, saying the data was not relevant to Pelo's case.

Assistant State's Attorney Bill Workman responded that the scarves and gloves used by the Emergency Response Unit are similar to those the women described as being worn by their assailant. He also said Pelo was in the room during off-duty hours.

Other prosecution witnesses testified Monday that Pelo may have used police computers to check the criminal and driving records of several women. Two of the women cited in the records testified last week that they were sexually assaulted in 2002 and 2003.

FBI technical information specialist Jane McCulley testified she was asked to compile records of offline searches made by Pelo between 2001 and 2005 which were stored by the National Criminal Information Center, a database used by police.

The checks by Pelo turned up data on eight women, including the first two alleged rape victims, according to McCulley's testimony. The data also provided Pelo with information about family members of the women, based upon the ownership records of vehicles, she said.

In his questioning of McCulley, Rosenblat pointed to NCIC records that showed police in other departments also requested information on one of the four assault victims.

Cat hair evidence

The possibility was raised Monday that a cat hair found in the ex-police officer's garage could have come from another police officer searching his garage.

Rosenblat questioned Bloomington Police Detective Dan Donath about the precautions officers took to avoid contamination of evidence during a search of Pelo's property. Among the evidence found in Pelo's garage was a cat hair on a ski mask.

Donath said he does not own a cat and did not know if the other 12 or more officers who searched the property own cats. Donath said he did not see any cats at the Pelo home or in the area.

The detective said he wears gloves all the time he is collecting evidence at a crime scene.

"I don't rub things against my clothing, I wear gloves and put things in a sealed container," the detective testified during the start of the third week of testimony in the case.

Donath said officers wear street clothes and did not put on protective clothing for the search.

Hair samples were collected from seven cats owned by several of the assault victims. An animal forensics expert from California previously testified that she conducted mitochondrial DNA testing on the hair. She said four of the seven hairs could not be excluded as having come from the cat whose hair was found at Pelo's home.

Additional testimony is expected from the FBI lab examiner who also studied the cat hair.