Professor of Ethnomusicology Roderic Knight is still awaiting a jury trial on two counts of public indecency. The case is currently slated to be tried in front of a jury on March 3, at the Oberlin Municipal Courthouse. After multiple pretrials, with the final pretrial on Jan. 5, the case will be heard by Judge Martin M. Heberlin.
Knight is accused of exposing himself to two College Students on Oct. 3. According to police reports, a man walking along Cedar Street pulled down his pants in front of two students. The students later identified Knight as the assailant.
This charge accompanies an earlier charge of public indecency in Westwood Cemetery on Aug. 28. A woman witnessed Knight running naked along the walking paths, and identified him to police.
Knight is being prosecuted by Professor of Sociology Jim Walsh, who is also Oberlin's district attorney.
Knight has denied all allegations against him.
Oberlin resident DeLucas Lucas has encountered more problems than just the Lorain County prosecutor in his criminal trial.
According to the Oberlin-News Tribune, Lucas' lawyer, Kirk L. Perry, has failed to attend two separate hearings in Lucas' trial. He did not attend a Feb. 4 hearing, as well as a Jan. 28 pre-trial meeting. The next pre-trail is scheduled for Feb. 25.
Lucas is accused of breaking into a female Fairchild resident's bedroom on last September, and attacking her with a large metal object. Lucas also is being held for the assault of an Oberlin student in the Keep parking lot last spring. He faces charges of attempted murder, attempted rape, aggravated burglary, felonious assault and robbery.
In police interviews Lucas confessed to the Keep assault, as well as an unrelated robbery. He did not confess to the Fairchild assault, however.
Despite his truancy, Perry has filed motions to suppress the confession and the lineup. His motion sites a lengthy interrogation and the denial of Lucas' requests for a lawyer as grounds for suppressing the confession.
Due to Perry's recent absences, the original jury trial date of March 1 has been canceled. The new trial date has yet to be determined.
Copyright © 1999, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 127, Number 13, February 12, 1999
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