Platte County Sodomy Conviction Could Provide Ammunition For Change To State Constitution

A prior sex offender was found guilty of sex abuse charges in Platte County, despite Missouri court rulings that disallow prosecutors from telling juries the suspect was a prior offender.

The Platte County Prosecuting Attorney says it’s time to change the state constitution to allow such evidence.

Jason D. Wright, 40, will be sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of three counts of statutory sodomy. In 1999, he had been found guilty of statutory sodomy in Clay County.

Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said, “This defendant told the victim that no one would believe her if she came forward. He was proven wrong by the deputies who investigated this case, the prosecutors who tried it, and the twelve good men and women of the jury who gave the victim justice.”

During the three-day trial, the victim testified that Wright sexually abused her in his bedroom almost every day when she came home from school from the ages of 13 to 15. When she was 16, the defendant crept into her room at night and sexually abused her on two occasions.

Another witness corroborated important details of the victim’s report. In a statement to law enforcement, she said often saw Wright take the victim into his bedroom for about 30 minutes after school.

Due to previous rulings by the Missouri Supreme Court, the jury was not allowed to know that the defendant was a registered sex offender with a prior offense for sexually abusing a child under age 14. The rulings are contrary to those of most other states and federal law.

Zahnd drafted a constitutional amendment that will go before voters in November 2014 to overturn the Supreme Court’s decisions and allow jurors know about a criminal defendant’s prior sex offenses.

“Sexual offenders are among the criminals most likely to reoffend,” Zahnd said, “but a series of unfortunate rulings by Missouri’s Supreme Court deprives juries of that important information.

:Even though we convicted this prior sex offender, the defense’s blistering attacks on the victim in this case highlight how important it is to support this amendment.”

After being found guilty by the jury, Judge Abe Shafer increased Wright’s bond to $350,000.00 cash only. Wright is scheduled to be sentenced on October 24.