Kidnapping allegations illustrate court process

The case began with a young man claiming several people had kidnapped him at gunpoint on a July night in Sikeston, Mo., held him hostage and beat him for several hours.

It ended with two men pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault charges.

What happened in between provides a detailed look at how -- and why -- due process operates.

The first news release came from the Scott County Sheriff's Department a few hours after the alleged attack. Several others followed as deputies arrested suspects and new details emerged.

Bryce Western

Andrew Robinett

A probable-cause affidavit filed in the case recounts a terrifying ordeal: A man steps outside to smoke a cigarette, whereupon three people kidnap him at gunpoint from his own property, force him into a car and take him to an assailant's house, where they and another man beat him until he passes out.

According to the affidavit, the victim awakens to find a gun in his mouth and a man demanding money but eventually escapes by convincing his captors to take him home so he can get them the money.

Probable cause

Police are responsible for arresting people suspected of committing crimes. Convicting or exonerating a suspect is up to the court.

"There's nothing that we can do but handle it like it was reported until we find out differently, and a lot of times, you don't find out until it gets to court," said Lt. Jerry Bledsoe of the Scott County Sheriff's Department.

The process of getting a case to court begins with a probable-cause affidavit.

Probable-cause affidavits do not establish guilt or innocence; they outline an officer's reasons for believing a crime may have occurred and a given party may have been responsible.

After reading a probable-cause affidavit, a prosecutor decides what, if any, charges to file.

"Once we work the case and ask for charges and turn it over to the prosecuting attorney, then the ball is in their court. ... We just kind of lose control of things," Bledsoe said.

Prosecutors did not return a phone call seeking comment Friday.

Once charges are filed, it is the court's responsibility to review evidence and render a verdict.

In the court of public opinion, probable-cause affidavits carry more weight: "Get the rope" is a popular online response to as-yet-unproven charges, and outside observers may view unverified allegations or even suspects' facial expressions in mug shots as evidence of guilt.

In high-profile cases, defense attorneys may request a change of venue or ask for jurors to be brought from another county to ensure a fair trial.

For instance, last summer, Judge Benjamin Lewis upheld a motion to bring a jury from outside the area to hear a murder case.

The suspect's attorney at the time, Bryan Greaser, said the number and reach of local media outlets would have made it hard to find unbiased jurors in the area.

"It's very difficult to find people in this area that might not have heard about this case and had preconceived notions," Greaser said in August. "It's human nature to develop opinions and think about a case when you hear bits and pieces."

In the Sikeston case, the first set of booking photos prompted a flurry of speculation. One online commenter declared, "Seriously, there were drugs involved inevitably" -- an assertion unsupported by any information presented in court -- while another proclaimed a female suspect a "worthless piece of trash" for smiling in her mug shot.

'Trust issues'

Judge Scott Horman dismissed all the charges against the smiling woman, Ashley Ivie, after a preliminary hearing in August during which her accuser delivered convoluted, often contradictory testimony, at one point saying his parents would not give him a house key because of "trust issues."

Like probable-cause affidavits, preliminary hearings do not establish guilt. Rather, they are a mechanism through which prosecutors try to convince a judge the case is strong enough to warrant a trial.

If the evidence at a preliminary hearing seems flimsy, a judge may dismiss some or all of the charges.

In addition to dropping the charges against Ivie, Horman threw out the kidnapping and felonious restraint charges against two of the men, Andrew Robinett and Bryce Western, effectively reducing the case to a first-degree assault charge against Robinett and a second-degree assault charge against Western.

After making his initial report, the alleged victim told investigators a fourth suspect, Cody McRoy, had kicked and punched him after he was kidnapped. He said he had hesitated to report McRoy's involvement because he suspected the others had coerced McRoy into participating.

During the preliminary hearing, Robinett's attorney, Ted Liszewski, described the accuser's testimony as "horrible."

"What we had today was just horrible. That kid's all over the board," he said.

Dispositions

In January, prosecutors reduced the assault charge against Western to a misdemeanor. He pleaded guilty and was placed on two years of unsupervised probation.

McRoy -- who waived his right to a preliminary hearing -- appeared Feb. 13 in Scott County Circuit Court, where all the charges against him were dropped.

The next day, Robinett pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to a year in the county jail.

Technology

The disposition of the cases may not be the end of the story, however.

Bill Schroeder, a law professor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, said the Internet makes it easy to research an individual's criminal history -- and easy to get it wrong.

While the charges against Ivie and McRoy are no longer accessible through the Missouri court system's online database, Schroeder said they still may lurk in private databases, where users can access them for a fee.

He said he would like to see the federal government regulate online criminal-record databases as it does credit reporting agencies, requiring that records be kept up to date and accurate.

"These things are devastating to people sometimes, and the fact that they're not accurate is one of the worst aspects of it," Schroeder said.

Ivie did not return a phone call seeking comment Friday.

Contact information was not available for McRoy.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Sikeston, Mo.