Outrage follows ruling freeing Missouri man accused of sexually assaulting baby daughter

A Missouri judge lit a firestorm with her decision to set free a man who admitted he’d sexually assaulted his infant daughter after watching porn.

The public defender for Aaron Michael Fisher, 27, of rural Miller County near the Lake of the Ozarks, argued in a motion that Fisher’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had been violated. Fisher had been charged in 2009 with two counts of forcible sodomy of his 5-month-old daughter.

After being life-flighted, the baby girl spent eight days in a Columbia hospital.

On Oct. 23, Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce granted the defense motion even though some of the delay was because Fisher recanted his confession, withdrew his guilty plea and asked for a continuance of his trial.

Joyce’s decision included harsh criticism for prosecutors for failing to bring the case to trial.

The ruling outraged a Lake of the Ozarks community. The Miller County prosecuting attorney has filed notice that he will ask the Missouri Court of Appeals’ Western District in Kansas City to overturn Joyce’s ruling, and a Missouri legislator has called for an investigation.

Joyce’s decision stunned the couple who adopted the victim and her brother. In a video interview with LakeExpo.com, the parents, who were not identified, said Fisher’s release puts their children and others at risk.

“He’s a ghost,” the mother said. “He could apply for a job, be around kids. Nothing would come up in a background check. He doesn’t have to report to anyone. He’s walking the streets.

“We need people to contact the (Missouri) attorney general’s office, to be our daughter’s voice.”

Miller County Prosecutor Ben Winfrey told The Star that he would ask Attorney General Chris Koster’s office for assistance in getting Joyce’s ruling overturned and Fisher back in custody to face trial.

“What happened here infuriated this community, and I’m going to do everything I can to bring justice to this victim and her family,” Winfrey said.

Missouri state Rep. Rocky Miller, whose district includes the lake area where the alleged crime occurred, said he would push for an investigation into Joyce that could lead to her impeachment.

“She wasn’t following the law,” Miller said. “She was making her own law.”

Jason Emmons, Fisher’s public defender, could not be reached for comment.

Nor could Joyce, but key sections of her ruling appeared on LakeExpo.com, including harsh criticism of previous Miller County prosecutor Matt Howard:

“(Howard) blatantly disregarded the United States Constitution and the Missouri Constitution in that he had at least six trial settings over a 5-year period and failed to bring any type of justice to the county of Miller.”

Joyce, who has served as a judge since 1995, went on to say that “Mr. Fisher’s liberty interest to a speedy and fair trial has been violated, cause is dismissed with prejudice and defendant is hereby discharged from Miller County Jail.”

Winfrey said Joyce’s decision ignored the fact that Fisher caused many of the delays.

Because the charges were dismissed, the case and its documents have been removed from public records, including Missouri Case.net. The website shows only that on July 6, 2011, Fisher pleaded guilty to damaging a jail cell while in custody on the sodomy charges and was sentenced to four years.

The sodomy charges against Fisher were filed Oct. 28, 2009. The alleged acts occurred while he was watching the baby when the mother was at work.

Miller, the state representative, said in a press release that Fisher “admitted on video to sodomizing his 5 month old child.”

Winfrey, a former Jackson County assistant prosecutor who took office in January, said part of the problem with court delays is that Miller County is part of a five-county circuit with only two judges. Lake traffic and methamphetamine constantly overburden court resources.

“What might take three months in Jackson County could take 12 months down here,” Winfrey said.

At some point early in the case, Fisher made a motion for a speedy trial. A date was set for early 2011, but before the date arrived, Fisher’s then-attorney requested a continuance.

The judge at the time — not Joyce — pointed out to Fisher that the request waived his earlier request for a speedy trial. Fisher did not object.

A new trial date was set, but on July 28, 2014, Fisher pleaded guilty. Sentencing was set for Nov. 6, 2014. As that date approached, Fisher recanted his confession, saying he didn’t remember what happened, and the judge in the case allowed Fisher to withdraw his guilty plea. The Nov. 23, 2015, trial date was set.

When Emmons, the public defender, asked Joyce to dismiss the case for Sixth Amendment reasons, Winfrey objected, arguing that the state was not responsible for delaying the trial.

Miller said Joyce’s decision to grant the defendant’s motion “appears to be the height of incompetency for a Circuit Court judge in Missouri.”

“She could have gone ahead and had the trial and nobody would have said a word,” Miller said. “They could have raised the issue of speedy trial on appeal. But the defendant asked for the delays.”

The couple who adopted the victim and her bother were shocked to hear of the decision and immediately tried to secure a court order of protection against Fisher. But then they decided not to for fear that doing so would tip Fisher to where the children were.

They said in the LakeExpo.com video that the judge didn’t do her homework in learning about Fisher.

“One of these days she (her daughter) will ask me about those scars — what do I tell her?” the mother said. “This was his justice? My children have no justice.”

When asked if they would like to say anything to Fisher, the couple declined.

“We’ll say it to him in court,” the mother said.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 5:40 PM with the headline "Outrage follows ruling freeing Missouri man accused of sexually assaulting baby daughter."