Judge orders man to stand trial in sex-abuse case

Ceremony to mark push for Civil War memorial

Organizers hope that today’s ceremony marking the 150th anniversary of a Civil War battle northwest of Joplin also will encourage support to finance a permanent memorial on the site.

Crime & Courts

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January 10, 2013

Judge orders man to stand trial in sex-abuse case

By Susan Redden news@joplinglobe.com The Joplin Globe Thu Jan 10, 2013, 11:25 PM CST

JOPLIN, Mo. —

A Jasper County judge on Thursday ordered a Joplin man bound over for trial on charges that he sexually abused two minors between the years 1998 and 2002.

A woman and a man testified at a preliminary hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court that Gilbert R. Roland, 48, sexually abused them when they were teenagers living in Joplin.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Associate Judge Richard Copeland ruled that there was probable cause for the defendant to stand trial on three counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, and single counts of second-degree statutory rape and first-degree sexual misconduct.

The judge set Roland’s initial appearance in a trial division of the court for Jan. 25.

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