By Greg Grisolano
ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com
NEOSHO, Mo. — A Joplin man pleaded guilty Wednesday to a single count of endangering the welfare of a child as part of a plea agreement reached with the Newton County Prosecuting Attorney’s office.
As part of the deal, Douglas Leeroy Bradley, 40, was assessed a suspended imposition of sentence and five years of supervised probation, according to Newton County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Dobbs.
Bradley had been charged with one count of child molestation involving a female victim who was 13 at the time. The child told sheriff’s investigators that she was molested on three or four occasions before April 25, 2008.
“It’s always difficult (in a plea bargain) to say that you’re satisfied with the resolution of case,” Dobbs said Thursday. “You have to weigh the feelings or concerns regarding the victim and the stress to the child against what is done. I think the fact that this man has now been adjudicated for a felony is appropriate.
“I believe that (the victim) was very emotionally overwrought, and there certainly was a chance that she would have been revictimized by testifying at trial. When you’re talking about a child this age, it’s a tremendous amount of stress to testify against a perpetrator in a court of law.”
Dobbs said Bradley still has another child-molestation charge stemming from similar allegations made by another 13-year-old girl. That victim told police that Bradley fondled and kissed her breasts, and placed her hand on his penis, according to a probable-cause statement on file in the Newton County Circuit Court.
Dobbs said that case had been on hold, pending a resolution to the other case. He said he plans to file a motion with the court to schedule a preliminary hearing.
“This case has not yet gone to preliminary hearing; it’s been held in abeyance awaiting the resolution of the first case,” he said. “It would be way too premature to talk about a resolution in that case.”
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