Case will proceed against lawyer accused of assaulting girlfriend

At a preliminary hearing in the case against Scott Reynolds, a Cape Girardeau lawyer in custody on four felony charges, including assault, Associate Circuit Court Judge Byron D. Luber bound over the case to Division I Court Wednesday, finding there is enough evidence for the case to proceed.

The victim in the case, Reynolds' fiancée, was the only witness called to the stand to testify.

Reynolds, charged with first- and second-degree assault, child endangerment and possession of marijuana, allegedly threatened to kill his fiancée by holding a gun to her head at the residence they share in Jackson.

His fiancée testified that the Feb. 17 assault started after the couple had been fighting over phone calls and text messages Reynolds made to an ex-girlfriend's sister. Reynolds and the victim had not been speaking for about two days before the alleged assault.

Andrea Hayes, a Boone County prosecuting attorney specially assigned to the case, asked the victim to describe Reynolds' actions that evening.

She said Reynolds first approached her in her child's bedroom and told her to change her behavior and her attitude, the victim said. An argument broke out downstairs. Before she could get her cell phone and keys and attempt to leave, Reynolds grabbed them first.

"The beer he had in his hand, he slammed it down and he just started attacking me," the victim told Hayes.

She said that Reynolds ripped a hairpiece off her head and pushed her to the ground. She ran to the bedroom, she said, where Reynolds continued to kick and punch her in the face.

"I could just feel his body weight on me. I was trying to cover my face," Reynolds' fiancée said. "I was crying and yelling at him to stop and to get off me."

The victim added that during this time her 6-year-old daughter was in the house and running from the living room to the bedroom and was yelling. According to the victim, Reynolds said he was going to kill her, her daughter and then kill himself.

Reynolds continued to choke her, the victim said, until she couldn't breathe.

"I'm hurt and I can't believe the Scott I knew just attacked me," the victim said, describing her feelings at the time of the alleged attack.

According to the victim's testimony, it was while she was back in the living room and trying to carry her child out the door that Reynolds pointed a gun at her face. The incident continued in the bedroom, where Reynolds held the gun in his hand and continued to curse and yell racial slurs, the victim said.

After Reynolds allegedly pulled the trigger of the unloaded gun five times, the victim said she picked up her daughter again and ran to a neighbor's home several yards away. The neighbor called the police, she said, while she wanted to call her cousin and just get away from Reynolds' home.

Hayes asked the victim why she didn't call the police.

"I'm black, he's white, he's an attorney, I didn't think they were going to do anything," the victim said. "They all know him."

Before concluding her questioning, Hayes entered into evidence three photographs: one of the victim's facial injuries, another of the gun and two sets of keys and one of the bullets, which the victim said she took out of the gun days before the assault.

In an attempt to portray the credibility of the witness, Reynolds' attorney, Stephen C. Wilson, asked the victim if she had ever been convicted of a crime.

She said she'd been convicted of passing a bad check in Missouri and of misdemeanor assault two or three times in Kentucky.

In other action Wednesday, Luber granted Reynolds a bond reduction, from $200,000 cash-only to $125,000, also cash-only.

Before Luber's decision, Wilson asked the judge to reduce Reynolds' bond to $50,000 cash or surety or at least allow a higher bond, payable by cash or surety.

"I don't think he's a threat to this woman or anyone else," Wilson said. "It's unnecessary to have a bond this high to ensure he appears in court."

Hayes, opposing the reduction, asked the judge to note the victim's scared and intimidated demeanor while testifying.

"He had a firearm and allegedly tried to kill her," Hayes said. "Having a law license, I'm worried what he might do when he gets out of here."

Because another circuit court judge will have to be specially assigned to the case, no new hearing was set for Reynolds.

ehevern@semissourian.com

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