Doty
JENNINGS COUNTY — A Jennings County judge has moved up the trial against a teenager accused of raping a special needs student on a school bus last year.
Jennings Circuit Court Judge Murielle Bright has moved up the jury trial by 2.5 months in the case of Landon Doty, 15, North Vernon, who is facing 12 criminal counts, according to court records.
The three-day trial is now scheduled to start March 30, instead of June 15, according to court records. Doty’s attorney had requested a speedy trial. Doty is currently incarcerated, according to the request.
Doty was arrested this past June and pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including four felony counts of rape, two felony counts of child molesting, four felony counts of sexual battery, one count of criminal confinement and one misdemeanor count of public indecency.
Doty was initially scheduled to go to trial in October, but the trial was delayed as the judge considered a motion to dismiss the charges.
Three days after the initial trial date, Doty’s attorney, Bradley Kage, asked Bright to dismiss the charges, citing what he describes in the motion as a lack of evidence.
In a motion to dismiss filed in October, Kage states that the bus driver and monitor on board the bus where the incident allegedly took place testified in depositions last month that “they did not see any sexual acts between the defendant and the alleged victim and that they saw nothing alarming.”
Additionally, Kage states in the motion that the videotapes taken from cameras on board the bus “do not show the defendant committing any of the charged acts,” the motion states.
“The state assumes that they show crimes were committed,” according to the motion. “… (T)he defendant respectfully requests that the court dismiss the information and the counts against him and for all other relief proper in the premises.”
Last month, Bright denied the motion to dismiss, finding that the video footage “is an issue of fact and is for the jury to determine,” according to Jennings County Prosecutor Brian Belding.
Bright had scheduled a hearing “to view the videos the state intends to introduce at trial” and consider the motion to dismiss, according to court records. Doty was required to attend the hearing.
The motion to dismiss stands in contrast with claims about the video footage made by Jennings County officials and law enforcement.
In June, Doty was booked into the Jennings County Jail after a magistrate judge ordered the teenager to be tried as an adult, citing “heinous” conduct and a “repetitive pattern of delinquent acts” that was allegedly captured on the Jennings County School Corp. school bus’s camera “over a period of several weeks,” according to court records.
A probable cause affidavit alleges that the Jennings County Middle School principal showed North Vernon police video from the school bus’s camera that was taken after school the day before as the students were on their way home.
In June, Jennings Circuit Magistrate Judge Christopher Doran ordered Doty to be tried as an adult, stating in a court order that “the alleged delinquent’s conduct was captured on video cameras on the bus. …The alleged delinquent’s criminal conduct appears to be calculated, indicating that he knew what he was doing was wrong. It appears in the videos that he would stop his criminal conduct anytime he thought someone may observe him, then continue his criminal conduct when he felt safe to continue without detection.”
While the motion to dismiss claims that Jennings County prosecutors’ case “rests primarily with the videotapes,” it is currently unclear precisely what other evidence investigators have gathered.
A witness and exhibit list filed by Jennings County prosecutors in August includes, among other people, two physicians, one nurse and one forensic scientist. It also includes laboratory reports and the alleged victim’s medical records.
The probable cause affidavit filed in Jennings Circuit Court alleges that North Vernon police were dispatched to Jennings County Middle School, located at 820 W. Walnut St. in North Vernon, on April 17 regarding “an unknown issue at the school’s transportation building.”
When the officers arrived, the school’s principal allegedly showed them video from the school bus’s camera that was taken after school the day before as the students were on their way home, the probable cause affidavit states.
The probable cause affidavit describes the alleged sexual assault and includes investigators describing incidents of oral sex and rape.
At one point, the bus monitor allegedly walked over to Doty and asked what was going on. The bus monitor then allegedly told the bus driver to pull over and “stated that the bus video needs to be reviewed.” The students were then separated.
Doty was allegedly taken from class and his guardian, his maternal grandmother, was called to come to the school. She allegedly said her brother would come because she was in Indianapolis.
When her brother arrived, the principal allegedly advised that “an incident took place and is being handled by the police department.”
Doty was placed into handcuffs and escorted inside a patrol car. Once the officer got into the car, Doty allegedly said, “I’m basically screwed,” according to information in the probable cause affidavit.
The judge’s order states that the victim suffers from moderate to severe autism and is non-verbal. The order also states that Doty is allegedly of “normal intelligence” and is not a special needs student, raising questions about why he was allowed to ride the special needs school bus.
