Troy man sentenced for July 4 2015 assault

A Troy man was sentenced last week to six months probation and a fine through a plea agreement.

District Judge James Wheelis on July 11 sentenced Charles Ray Norman, 36, of Troy, to six months probation and a $500 fine for a misdemeanor assault. Norman pleaded no contest to the charge, which was reduced from a felony through a plea agreement between Norman’s attorney, Todd Glazier and the Lincoln County Attorney’s office, along with a condition that Norman’s probation from a prior felony assault would not be revoked after the conviction. Norman is currently on a five-year suspended sentence from a 2012 felony partner or family member assault charge, his third, to which he pleaded guilty. That felony assault was against a different victim.

In the most recent assault charge, Lincoln County Deputy Attorney Jeff Zwang said he believes the case did not have the evidence needed for a felony conviction.

“There are some issues with the evidence in that case,” Zwang said on Friday. “Based on my judgment as the prosecuting attorney, I believe those issues would have posed some significant difficulties.”

According to court documents, Norman was charged in 2015 with his fourth partner or family member assault three days after allegedly assaulting a Troy woman at her home in the early morning of July 4. The woman told police that when she got home, drunk, Norman started beating her. When she woke up, Norman was sleeping next to her and she told him to leave.

Norman told law enforcement that he acted in self-defense, pushing the woman into a wall to get her away. Officers also spoke with the victim’s mother, Penny Boswell, who said Norman told her on July 4 that he was forced to backhand her daughter. Officers arrested Norman at the adult probation office on July 7.

Despite a lack of witnesses or hard evidence that would have aided a conviction against Norman, several members of the community believe the Lincoln County Attorney’s Office did not do their part in pursuing justice against Norman.

“I’m completely floored,” Penny Boswell, the assault victim’s mother, said. “I don’t understand how someone with his record could get by with a slap on the wrist.

“Why did he spend the night if he was so afraid of her?” Boswell asked. “Why didn’t he leave? Why didn’t he call the cops?”

Norman came to Boswell’s home after the incident in 2015. That night, she had been looking after the baby, fathered by Norman with Boswell’s daughter. She said prior to the assault, Norman had been staying some nights at the victim’s house.

On July 9, 2015, two days after Norman was arrested for the assault, the victim filed a petition for a restraining order against Norman. But 18 days later, at the petition hearing, she asked that the petition be dissolved. Boswell said while their relationship had hit a violent point, her daughter wanted Norman to be allowed to see their child. She said the petition for a restraining order was never served to Norman, so the victim felt it was pointless to pursue.

“She did not renew the petition. What’s the point if they’re not going to serve it?” Boswell said.

Boswell also said her daughter never got the chance to tell her story in court before the judge and the county attorney’s office; only told the story to Zwang over a phone conversation. On May 5, 2016, the victim issued a letter to the court, stating that she had not been given the opportunity to tell her story and providing a brief recollection of events from the July 4 incident.

Zwang said the victim did have the opportunity to tell the story; during the initial investigation and in her letter to the court.

“I appreciate her opinions and views on the case and I appreciate the victims and what they want to see happen,” Zwang said. “It’s important to me but it’s not the only thing that’s important to me. It appeared to me that there were some significant problems with the evidence in this case.”

Zwang said in cases like this, where the defendant claims self-defense, the state has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that it was not in self-defense. Based on the case information, Zwang said the evidence may have been too thin for a conviction.

“Norman claimed self-defense and the victim said she didn’t have a real clear memory,” Zwang said.

Between Zwang, County Attorney Bernard Cassidy and former deputy county attorney Joseph Cik, the county attorney’s office has gone to trial about six times in the past year, Cassidy said.

“Nobody likes plea agreements or the plea agreement system,” Cassidy said. “But if you didn’t have them the system would collapse.

“They’re a necessary tool for the system.”

Darrel Vanderhoef, Norman’s probation officer, said he’s currently working on filing a revocation of Norman’s probation for the 2012 assault conviction, even though he knows his hands are tied in the matter. As part of the plea agreement, the county attorney’s office won’t pursue the revocation.

“It’s more symbolic,” Vanderhoef said. “We don’t agree with it. He’s at the felony level.”

Vanderhoef said in his 13 years as a probation officer, he’s never seen a line in a plea agreement that guarantees a defendant’s probation would not be affected as part of the conviction. He said he spoke with Norman, his attorney and the county attorney’s office, saying he would file a revocation if Norman pleaded guilty to the charge.

“It’s the public safety issue,” Vanderhoef said. “In my opinion, public safety is number one. All else is secondary: the offender’s rehabilitation, freedom, treatment all comes second to public safety.”

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 293-4124 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.