CANDIDATE PLEADS INNOCENT TO ASSAULT

A Wayne County commissioner facing primary elections has pleaded innocent to assaulting a man and his girlfriend with a handgun, the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor said.

In a telephone conference Thursday between the judge, prosecutor and defense attorney, a waiver was read from incumbent commissioner Bruce W. Keel stating that he was not guilty of pistol whipping a man from Mill Spring, Mo., or of threatening both the man and his girlfriend with a handgun.

Morley Swingle of Cape Girardeau is serving as special prosecutor, while Circuit Judge Robert Stillwell of Madison County has been appointed to hear the case.

The prosecutor and judge spoke by phone with defense attorney DeWayne Hackworth of Piedmont, Mo., on Thursday.

Keel, a six-year incumbent, has been charged with two felony counts of unlawful use of a weapon and the felony of second degree assault.

Investigators have said that Keel sought out his victim at a convenience store parking lot in rural Wayne County just before midnight on June 29. He is said to have put the gun to the head of the victim's girlfriend, struck the victim in the head with the gun and then attempted to put the barrel in the victim's mouth.

For more than a month before the reported assaults, Keel's campaign signs were vandalized and torn down systematically, the Wayne County Sheriff's Department has said. The campaign signs of his competitors have remained undamaged, and deputies have not yet arrested a suspect regarding Keel's signs.

Only three Keel campaign posters are still up and undamaged in the candidate's hometown of Piedmont. One of these is about 10 feet off the ground in front of a service station owned by Keel's father, he said.

"I'm not putting up any more signs," he said. "I figure I've gotten enough notoriety in the media already."

Keel has said he is waiting for the truth about the incident to come out in court.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 14 in Fredericktown, Mo., Swingle said.

Keel said he had hoped to find a more positive resolution sooner. He will face two other Democrats in what he still characterizes as a close race for Western District commissioner.

The incident has given Keel a new view on the court system, he said.

"Now I can see that there are a whole lot of things in there that don't belong," Keel said.