MOUNT VERNON — A jury trial in Knox Common Pleas Court scheduled for today has been continued.
Attorney Stephen Ames, representing Zachary Emmert, 23, filed a motion of continuance due to family health matters and was granted the continuance by Common Pleas Judge Richard Wetzel, according to Prosecuting Attorney Chip McConville.
Emmert is charged with felonious assault and endangering children. The trial was originally scheduled to be held in the Memorial Theater.
McConville said that a new trial date has not been set yet but the jury pool will be different.
“Different month; different pool,” McConville explained.
Also continued was a jury trial scheduled for June 30 that involves Jason Hess, 32, a former Knox County Jail jailer charged with public indecency and sexual battery against inmates at the jail. The continuance was the result of joint motion by the defense and prosecuting attorneys on the grounds that a few subpoenaed witnesses have yet to be located, according to McConville.
McConville said “COVID-19 happened” and witnesses who were recently released from supervision or custody, whose employment is not steady, became hard to track down.
This is the ninth time that Hess’s trial has been continued since April 2019, according to court records. It could be continued again if the witnesses cannot be located; however, the court could also refuse to grant the continuance if the judge decides that the case has been delayed for too long, noted McConville.
“We’ll be ready at the next trial date,” McConville said.
The felonious assault and child endangerment case stems from an October incident in which Emmert brought his 8-month old infant with broken ribs to the hospital. The injury was allegedly caused by Emmert.
Emmert was indicted for felonious assault, a second-degree felony, and two counts of endangering children, second and third-degree felonies.
The public indecency and sexual battery case arose out of reports through the Prison Rape Elimination Act hotline that Hess allegedly exposed himself to, and engaged in oral sex with, female inmates. Under the Ohio Revised Code, the female inmates’ ability to consent to sexual activities was under duress because Hess, as a jail employee, had authority over them.
Hess was indicted with two counts of sexual battery, third-degree felonies, and three counts of public indecency, third and fourth-degree misdemeanors. The charges date back to August of 2015.
