BUCHANAN ATTORNEY LANNY FISHER PRELIMINARY HEARING UPDATE

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
NILES – People learned more about the case against Buchanan attorney Lanny Fisher Monday on the first day of his preliminary hearing in Berrien County Trial Court. Four women testified that Fisher had forced them to have sexual relations with him while he was representing them.
The case is being heard by Van Buren County District Judge Michael McKay after all Berrien County judges recused themselves. Fisher, 54, of Buchanan, faces 14 criminal sexual conduct and prostitution related charges. The alleged incidents occurred at his home and office in Buchanan over 12 years, dating back to 2010.
He was arraigned in April on nine counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and four counts of misdemeanor prostitution offenses. He faces up to 15 years in prison on the second-degree CSC charges, up to two years in prison on the fourth-degree CSC charges and up to 93 days in jail on the prostitution charges.
Berrien County Prosecutor Steve Pierangeli is trying the case for the people and called four women to testify Monday. He is expected to call one or more additional witnesses when the preliminary hearing resumes on a yet to be scheduled date.
Two women who testified Monday morning are currently in prison and went to Fisher for legal help.
The first woman said she knew Fisher from when he represented her in a criminal case. “He said he was the best attorney, was a big wig, took on the huge cases and always won,” she said. “He said he had an ‘in’ with several prosecutors and judges.”
She said she had sex with Fisher both at his office in Buchanan and at a hotel in Benton Harbor after he said “he could take of the bill if I took care of him.”
The second woman is also in prison. She said she first met Fisher in 2009 and 2010 when she was 14. He said he would pay her to paint his house but was really paying her to have sex with him, she said. He then represented her in a criminal case where she pleaded guilty and is now in prison.
The other two women testified Monday afternoon and also went to Fisher to represent them in criminal cases.
The first of the women is now 21 and first met Fisher when he came to see her when she was in the Berrien County Jail in February 2022. “He said if I wanted to stay out of jail, I would have to hear him out on what he wanted to do,” she said. “I was scared … I thought if I didn’t do what he wanted, I would go to jail.”
The other woman said Fisher represented her in 2020 on a drunk driving charge and she was scared to say no to him. “He said that he was friendly with the people at the courthouse, that he had game nights with other lawyers, that he was a very good lawyer and had been on Nancy Grace,” she said. “… He said he knows all the police and judges as well as criminals who owe him favors.”
Fisher’s attorneys, Josh Blanchard and Melissa Freeman of the Greenville-based Blanchard Law firm, questioned the four women on their statements and tried to show inconsistencies in what they said in court Monday as well as to police investigators in the past. They tried to show that the sex was consensual and that the women could have left his office or not gone to his home.