Yesterday, a discussion occurred between my parents, myself and some other folks about a local man who's been arrested for child molestation. My parents and the other people we were talking to are in shock about the accusations. Now, a little background.... My parents owned a wholesale produce business in this area and had dealt with Mr. Archer (who owned a tire company) for tires for the produce trucks they owned.
The man accused, Rex Archer, is well known in the area, he is a prominent local businessman. He is also a past president of one of the Reclamation Districts, a former Yuba County Sheriff's Department reserve deputy. He was/is a vocal critic of local government's flood protection efforts, challenged Supervisor Dan Logue in the June 2006 election and lost. A year or so before he ran for Supervisor, he announced plans to run for Sheriff, but ended up not running due to questions about his eligibility. Last year, he headed an unsuccessful effort to recall Supervisor Logue.
A quote from the local newspaper, The Appeal Democrat, dated Feb. 8th describes the charges:
"The seven-count complaint, filed Wednesday by Deputy District Attorney Bradley Enos, includes two counts of continuous sexual abuse, three counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, oral copulation with a child under 14, and penetration by a foreign object of a child under 16." (Archer faces sex charges ~ Appeal Democrat, Feb. 8th, 2008)
Following Mr. Archer's arrest on the 7th, the judge appointed a public defender and scheduled a a Feb. 20 bail hearing and a Feb. 22 preliminary hearing. The judge also issued a criminal protection order against Mr. Archer, prohibiting him from contacting the victims or their families and he must stay at least 100 yards away from their homes. The victims were 8 and 9 year old girls and the assaults occurred over the last 3 years.
Then in an article on Saturday, (Archer moved to Colusa County Jail ~ Appeal Democrat, Feb. 9th, 2008) said that he plead "not guilty" and bail was set at $500,000. But, the main focus of the article is that they had to move him out of the Yuba County jail to another county nearby because of his "previous affiliation" with the Yuba County Sheriff's Department.
I've got a google alert set up so that any new news that happens about Mr. Archer will land in my email box. I am going to follow this one as much as I can. And if I can, I just might pay a visit to the Yuba County courthouse when the time comes.... We'll see...
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5 comments:
I think it would be fantastic if you covered this trial and reported on it. Consider contacting the court's public liaison office, to see if you can get a permanent seat, and/or if you can bring your laptop and blog from inside the courtroom!
It doesn't hurt to ask.
I wish I had a laptop! lol.. I will be checking on what is going on with the status of the case. I'll have to wait and see how things go and how soon the trial will be. Everything is still in the very preliminary stages since he was just arrested last week.
Up until now, I've only had one experience with the court systems here in this county, and that was a case where someone (a family member, no less) burglarized my house and I was called as a witness to testify about the value of the things that were stolen from me. My memories of the courtroom we were in are very vague since it was so long ago and my emotions were rather high at the time. I am, however, considering attending what I can of the trial. We shall see how the proceedings go with the preliminary hearing and such.
Hmm.. I was just looking at the Sutter County courthouse website and it dawned on me that the trial will be held in YUBA county, not Sutter, where I live! lol.. I have never even been inside the courthouse across the river! They don't even have the calendars up on their website that I can find! Ugh! More investigation will have to be done, I guess.. I'm not exactly fond of going to Yuba County!
so, has the preliminary hearing been held?
I've been watching the paper for news about Mr. Archer, but the only thing I've found was the bail hearing. They announced in that article that the preliminary hearing would be on March 7th, but I haven't seen anything at all in the paper about it.
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