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By Janelle Patterson
Staff Reporter
LOGAN -- The defense of Alecia Dawn Kitts, a Marietta woman arrested in September at a Marietta-Logan middle school football game after allegedly refusing to wear a mask per coronavirus guidelines on the school grounds, has rejected a plea offer from the Logan Law Director's office.
"This matter came before the court regarding a pre-trial," notes the entry journalized Tuesday by the Hocking County Municipal Court in the case of Kitts, 34, of 140 1/2 Clinton St., Marietta. "The prosecution has offered a plea deal, on the record, to the defendant."
The plea deal, the entry notes, was to plea to a fourth-degree misdemeanor charge of criminal trespassing, in exchange for a dismissal of a second-degree misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest.
The higher (second-degree misdemeanor) charge, according to Marietta Law Director Paul Bertram, carries a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a maximum $750 fine.
Bertram stated that a recent shift in law concerning criminal trespass may conflate applicable sentencing in the lower charge if Kitts is convicted at trial.
"The defendant has declined this plea deal," the court notes. "Therefore, this matter is to be set for a jury trial."
A clerk of the court said Wednesday that no new trial date has been set in the case, and confirmed that Retired Judge Michael T. Brandt still presides over the case as appointed following the recusal of sitting judge Frederick Moses on Nov. 9.
Additional recent entries in the court docket since the jury trial was continued include:
¯ A final pretrial hearing scheduled for May 4 (filed on April 6.)
¯ An application to appoint an assistant law director in the case (filed April 21.)
"Now comes Abigail M. Saving, law director of the city of Logan, and moves this court … to appoint Ryan J. Shepler, (an) assistant law director for the above-titled case, to assist in the prosecution she deems prudent and just," reads the entry into the court docket.
¯ An entry granting the appointment of Ryan J. Shepler as an assistant in the prosecution to the law director (granted April 22.)
The entry notes Shepler is to serve "without compensation" as an assistant law director.
Shepler's oath to serve in the office was docketed on April 26.
Shepler and Saving refused to speak with the Times on Wednesday when contacted.
Kitts' constitutional attorney out of Columbus, Maurice Thompson, told the Times on Wednesday that new information regarding the case would be released in the near future.
Janelle Patterson may be reached at jpatterson@mariettatimes.com.