Boyd's plea hearing rescheduled again

Renee Boyd, left, and her girlfriend, Rachel Hornbeck, walk out of the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse after Boyd's scheduled plea hearing Monday. The plea hearing was rescheduled to Nov. 21.

Laura Simon

Renee Boyd's plea hearing took two minutes Monday afternoon, only to be rescheduled again.

Judge Michael Gardner granted two more weeks to allow her lawyer, Gordon Glaus, and assistant prosecuting attorney Frank Miller to try to reach a plea bargain.

Boyd, who suffers from mental illness and Tourette's syndrome, was arrested during an episode in January after leaving her Cape Girardeau home during a mental-health episode.

The responding police officer tried to conduct an assessment of her well-being but forcibly detained her when she proved uncooperative. She was arrested and charged for her role in the resulting struggle. Boyd's story was featured in a four-part series last week in the Southeast Missourian.

Although online records still show her facing two counts of felony assault, those charges could be lowered or dropped after Gardner rejected her attempt to plead guilty to them three weeks ago under a previously offered plea deal.

Walking out of the Cape Girardeau County Courthouse with her girlfriend, Rachel Hornback, and Hornback's sister, Sarah Wheatley, she said even though things remain uncertain, she feels better now than she did weeks or months ago.

"I don't know if that will be the last one, either," she said of the Nov. 21 hearing. "But --"

"Hey," Wheatley interrupted. "All you can do is hope."

"Yeah, hopefully we can get either a better plea," she said, "Or ... something."

To read more about Boyd's journey through the court system, go to semissourian.com/boyd.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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