YOUNGSTOWN — An alleged illicit relationship Steve Kent had with a Poland High School student began innocently enough, according to testimony Thursday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge John Durkin’s courtroom.

After defense attorney John Juhasz and Ohio Attorney General Prosecutor Kara Keating gave their opening statements, the state began calling witnesses. They began with Courtney Wilson, the social worker at Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning County Campus Child Advocacy Center.

Wilson interviewed the alleged victim when the girl was 17, just days after the last incident of alleged sexual abuse for which Kent is charged.

The next witness was the woman herself, now 20. Keating and her co-counsel Denise Salerno spent the morning questioning both women about the woman’s recollection of three incidents in which Kent allegedly pressured her into performing oral sex on him in his vehicle.

She said the incidents happened between April and June 2021 in parking lots in Boardman.

The woman said Kent was friendly and outgoing with all students. She said the personal friendship began in 2019 when she expressed sympathy to Kent over the death of his son.

Then 16, she told him her mother had died of breast cancer nine years earlier. She said Kent initially wanted her to befriend his younger daughter who was struggling with the loss of her brother.

But Kent started sending her regular messages through social media, eventually including pictures of himself with and without clothing, some showing full nudity. She said she felt pressured to do the same.

Juhasz cross examined the social worker but did not have time to cross examine the alleged victim before lunch.

His questions sought to poke holes in the interview Wilson conducted at the time of the offenses. He seemed to question whether her memory could be trusted if she could remember details about the color of the room in the background of videos Kent sent her but not the type of underwear he had on at the time of the alleged incidents.

Follow the trial in Friday’s VINDICATOR and Vindy.com