(Press accounts claimed that Ms. Rossi stated that her attacker might have been a demon in human form, but the Rossis deny she said this.) Sherrie's stepbrother, Mark Plaugher, accused the Rossi family of pressuring her to change her story; her father said she had been "brainwashed," and Sherrie's stepfather, Phil Plaugher, said that church members pressured Sherrie by telling her that it was a sin to testify against one's husband. Sherrie Rossi testified in the trial that her attacker was a different man with brown eyes and that Rossi's eyes are blue. She said her earlier testimony against Rossi was coerced by police when she was still recovering and did not have a complete recollection, and that her second testimony exonerating her husband came from "flashbacks" and a "fuller complete recollection" of what occurred. A defender of Rossi corroborated Sherrie Rossi's mystery attacker, testifying a passing motorist saw a bearded man matching Sherrie Rossi's description wearing jeans. (Rossi was wearing shorts). Sherrie Rossi said: "We have eyewitnesses who saw a white car similar to ours following us and several family members several weeks before I was attacked. My husband also received a number of threats before I was attacked. The whole police had one agenda from Day One, and that was to get my husband." During her testimony, Sherrie Rossi wore a shirt with two doll figures labeled "Rich" and "Sherrie" and flashed the American Sign Language sign for love at her husband Richard. Over Rossi's wife's objections, prosecutors charged him with attempted murder and won a court ruling admitting her earlier testimony at trial. The parties argued whether the blood-soaked interior of Rossi's car was consistent with Sherrie's claim. The secretary of Rossi's church testified that Rossi asked him shortly after the incident to forge an alibi. The defense called two witnesses, a church member and Rossi's mother, for a total of a half-hour of testimony; Rossi himself did not testify. A five-day trial ended in a hung jury, with the vote 9–3 in favor of conviction after six and a half hours of deliberation. Before retrial, Rossi pleaded no contest to a count of second-degree aggravated assault while maintaining his innocence. Though his followers wanted him to fight what his wife called an "assault of justice", Rossi stated he pled nolo contendere to end the ordeal. "One of my many goals is to heal our family and