Region/state digest 01/10/04

Perry County man charged with sex crimes

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Bradley L. Doll, 28, of 2387 Perry County Road 928 was charged Thursday with felony counts of statutory sodomy, incest and child molestation. A deputy served the arrest warrant at Doll's home Thursday evening. He remains in custody on a $100,000 cash-only bond.

Jackson man charged with felony child abuse

Jackson police arrested a 31-year-old man Thursday for allegedly striking an 8-year-old girl with a belt and causing her injuries. Ronald L. Garmon of Jackson was charged with one felony count of child abuse. Garmon's bond was set at $5,000.

New head of prosecuting attorney group named

KENNETT, Mo. -- Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Sokoloff of Kennett is the new president of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. Sokoloff assumed the office Jan. 2 and will serve a one-year term. Membership in the association is made up of elected prosecutors and assistant prosecutors in Missouri. Before becoming Dunklin County prosecuting attorney, Sokoloff served as assistant prosecuting attorney from 1979 to 1985.

Man gets more than 15 years for series of arsons

ST. LOUIS -- An eastern Missouri man on Friday was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for burning eight industrial and business buildings, U.S. Attorney Ray Gruender said. Larry Bradford Bullock, 34, of Wright City, also agreed to forfeit seven guns, and to pay restitution of $715,694. Bullock pleaded guilty in October to eight felony counts of damaging or destroying a building/personal property used in an activity affecting interstate commerce; and one felony count of being a previously convicted felon in possession of firearms.

Paroled Arkansas rapist sentenced to life in prison

LIBERTY, Mo. -- Paroled Arkansas rapist Wayne DuMond was sentenced Friday to life in prison on his first-degree murder conviction in the suffocation death of a Parkville woman three years ago. Dumond was convicted in November of the Sept. 20, 2000, death of Carol Sue Shields. The 39-year-old mother of one was found dead at a northern Kansas City apartment. DuMond was paroled in Arkansas after serving 13 years of a sentence for the 1984 rape of a Forrest City, Ark., teenager who is a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, then Arkansas' governor. DuMond was awaiting trial in that case when someone castrated him in 1985 in his Arkansas home.

Hollister police chief charged with theft

HOLLISTER, Mo. -- The police chief of this southwest Missouri town is free on bail after being charged with stealing from his own department. George Stevens, 36, a 10-year veteran of the department who was hired as chief in 1996, was arrested and charged Thursday. Stevens is suspected of stealing $6,900 from the Hollister Police Department, including $4,300 in cash bond money collected from the city jail. He was suspended without pay. City administrator Rick Ziegenfuss said city leaders noticed irregularities in the financial books several months ago. Stevens couldn't account for the money and "couldn't come to a conclusion as to where it went," Ziegenfuss said. City leaders asked the Missouri State Highway Patrol for an independent preliminary inquiry.

Dunklin County town's council unable to vote

CARDWELL, Mo. -- The Cardwell City Council in Dunkin County won't be able to vote on city affairs for part of January. South Ward Alderwoman Penny Stacy resigned her position Thursday because she is moving from the south ward to the north ward, leaving only two of four aldermen for the council meetings. That is enough to make quorum but not enough to vote on city affairs. Alderwoman Vera Lee Langston has missed the last three meetings because of her fight with cancer, and may miss more meetings. Mayor David Bishop said he hopes to appoint a replacement by Jan. 22.

-- From staff, wire reports