Henry County Sheriffs Office: Charges Could Be Coming

Henry County Prosecuting Attorney Richard Shields has announced that yesterday afternoon he received a criminal referral from the Henry County Sheriff’s Department regarding what had been initially reported as being an “unclothed” juvenile found unconscious in a rural area near Clinton. He said that he had not previously received any written report on the matter to base any charges on. He further commented that the rumors that he had “dropped charges” against one of the adults involved were incorrect because there were no charges to be dropped yet.
The referral consists of a written report that is over an inch thick with accompanying documents. In addition there are several hours of CD’s containing video interviews of various persons and other investigative materials. It will take considerable time to conduct a complete and thorough review of those materials.

Apparently the case generated an explosion of social media rumors that were quite frankly just plain wrong. There were rumors that there was a girl who had been kidnapped, brutally raped and beaten, and left for dead naked beside a road. He said someone even repeated that rumor in an anonymous tip to a Kansas City media outlet. Prosecutor Shields said that an initial review of the probable cause statements submitted with the referral do not support kidnapping or sexual assault charges against any person nor do they describe any person as having sustained serious physical injuries. They also do not describe the juvenile female as being naked when found as reported initially by the sheriff’s department release.

He did say that the reports do appear to describe criminal and very irresponsible conduct committed by both juveniles and adults and the report will be thoroughly reviewed before any charges against the adults are filed by his office. Charges against the juveniles will be considered by the juvenile officer of the 27^th Judicial Circuit Court consistent with Missouri law.

Shields said that it is and always been the policy of this office to make charging decisions based upon the facts as presented in a competent criminal investigation conducted by a law enforcement agency and not to not be influenced in any way by rumors and comments perpetuated on social media.

Shields said that he and his office have been in contact with both the girl’s parents and the juvenile office. Prosecutor Shields said that he would issue a news release announcing any charges filed against the adults involved in this case and asked that the public be patient with the very important process.