KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Former Missouri House Speaker Rod Jetton faced a legal double-header Wednesday — an arraignment on a state assault charge, followed by an appearance before a federal grand jury investigating a bribery allegation.
The scheduling on the unrelated cases was a coincidence for Jetton, whose political stock has crashed since leaving office in January 2009. The Republican from southeast Missouri is pressing ahead with a defense on both fronts.
It wasn’t clear whether Jetton planned to appear in person for a scheduled Wednesday morning arraignment before Scott County Circuit Judge David Dolan in Benton, which is more than 300 miles southeast of Kansas City. He currently is free on bond. A judge found probable cause last month to move ahead with a felony assault charge following sometimes graphic testimony from a woman who said Jetton battered her during rough sex.
Jetton has said he will testify later Wednesday before a federal grand jury in Kansas City. The panel is looking into whether Jetton tried to stifle legislation regulating sexually oriented businesses in exchange for porn-industry contributions to a political committee.
Jetton, 42, has said previously that he is not guilty of assault. He also has denied any wrongdoing in his handling of the adult entertainment legislation in 2005.
The accuser in the assault case is a 35-year-old woman from Sikeston. Her name was announced in court but The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they are victims of sexual violence.
The woman testified that she knew Jetton as a child and attended the Baptist church where Jetton’s father was the preacher. Both Jetton and the woman are recently divorced and had agreed to meet for a sexual encounter, which woman said turned violent.
The federal investigation centers on a 2005 bill that would have imposed taxes and fees on strip clubs, adult movie theaters and bookstores and other sexually oriented businesses. It also would have required such businesses to close by midnight and would have barred people younger than 21, tipping, touching and full nudity.
After the bill passed the Senate on March 29, 2005, Jetton assigned it on April 4, 2005, to a House committee whose chairman opposed it. Between those dates, the adult entertainment industry gave $35,000 to a political fundraising committee that typically supported Republican campaigns and which had hired a Jetton adviser as its consultant.
Jetton has denied assertions that he tried to kill the bill. He noted that a scaled-back version of the legislation ultimately passed the Legislature, after being amended in the Senate to a drunken-driving bill sponsored by Jetton. That version did not include taxes, fees or restrictions on tipping and closing hours.
A court later struck down the provisions on sexually oriented businesses, ruling they violated a state constitutional ban on legislators changing a bill’s original purpose.
