Jordan McGuire
LARAMIE, Wyoming—As anticipated, a man originally from Carterville has been bound over for trial after being arrested for sexual misconduct in his latest state of residence, Wyoming.
Jordan McGuire, who made headlines earlier this week because he can’t seem to give up his alleged proclivities when it comes to trying to convince young men to have sex with him, had a hearing yesterday in Laramie, Wyoming that followed an arrest over a November 21 incident that got him arrested, much like the one that got him arrested in Saline County in 2007; the one that got him arrested in Indiana a couple of years back; and the one that got him under investigation in Carbondale last year.
This is from The Branding Iron’s article, “Court finds probable cause in sexual assault case in UW student“:
In a preliminary court hearing yesterday, Albany County Judge Robert Castor found probable cause that UW student, Jordan McGuire, committed sexual assault on the night of November 21.
“The court does find that there is probable cause to believe that the offense of sexual assault in the first degree…was probably committed, and furthermore, the defendant here in charged, Jordan Lee McGuire, is probably the person who committed that offense,” Castor said.
The hearing entailed the prosecution and defense questioning of Frederick O’ Connor, the Laramie Police Department patroller who conducted the McGuire investigation.
Connor stated the alleged sexual assault occurred between 11 p.m. November 21 and 2 or 3 a.m. November 22 at a party McGuire hosted at 2024 Binford 722 Campus Habitat. He added the victim called the police department at 3 p.m. on November 22.
During investigation questioning, the victim said he was drunk prior to attending McGuire’s party and upon arrival he consumed one or two more alcoholic drinks provided by McGuire, Connor said. The victim claimed to not remember much, as he was “blacking in and out” through out the evening, Connor said, describing blacking out as where one “commonly doesn’t remember certain time frames associated with drugs or alcohol,”
The victim told Connor he became ill at the party and passed out in the bathroom, Connor said. Upon waking up, McGuire was lying next to the victim, touching him sexually in the anal area. Connor added that the victim told McGuire to stop.
The victim passed out a second time and awoke to McGuire forcing him into sexual acts.
“McGuire had his right hand on the back of the victim’s head and hair, and his left hand on the back of his neck, forcing his mouth on his penis,” Connor said.
This is reflective of the charges in at least Vanderburgh County, Indiana in 2012…as well as in Saline County, which occurred in 2007 and was quite the scandal at the time. Due to the high interest in the situation, we’ve opted to produce here a portion of the June 2011 article where in we first encountered McGuire’s name.
The article was about county ‘anti-crime’ funds and their alleged misuse, a response to a hit piece produced by Belleville reporters Beth Hunsdorfer and George Pawlaczyk. McGuire’s case was caught up in one of a bunch that were selected out of Saline by various defense attorneys who apparently went to the two reporters and griped about said cases. Here’s the excerpt about McGuire:
Jordan McGuire was the young man (20 at the time) from Carterville who was accused of rape in 2007 after he and some other boys attending school at Southeastern Illinois College in Harrisburg held a party in Harco, and one of the boys, Phillip George, accused McGuire of having forcible anal sex with him.
There were other circumstances surrounding the incident besides the alleged forcible sex, including another boy, Robert Scates, who claimed that after becoming highly intoxicated, he decided to spend the night at the Harco residence, then awoke on a sofa sleeper in the residence next to McGuire, with “the taste of semen in his mouth and on his chest.” George was not present in the room at that time, according to reports.
While the whole thing smacked of a night of homosexual debauchery among underage kids, authorities took the overall reports into consideration and as a result, took the accusation of forcible sodomy very seriously.
McGuire was bonded out of the Saline County Detention Center with $25,000 posted by his grandfather.
Because the alleged victim became uncooperative (in that he couldn’t be found to proceed with the case), and because of defense wranglings provided by McGuire’s attorney John Clemons, the matter dragged through the Saline County court system until April 2009, when McGuire, Clemons and Henshaw sat down and worked out a plea agreement—nothing new to any courtroom in Illinois or indeed America, for that matter.
As part of the plea—which included, on the state’s side, reducing a charge of Criminal Sexual Assault by use of Force, a Class 1 felony, to Battery with physical contact, a Class A misdemeanor—McGuire received a 24-month supervisory sentence, but also negotiated fines and fees.
The fines and fees were in the amount of $11,840.00, which was taken from the $25,000 bond posted. The remainder of the bond was returned to the grandfather.
In fines and fees assessed were such matters as a $2,500 fine (without specification as to what type; just “fine”), $2,540 “clerk’s” fee, $630 surcharge/LEADS fee, $600 probation fee, $250 violent crime fee….and a $5,000 “Mandatory Drug Fee,” part of the fees authorized by the county board in 2005 when requested by then-prosecutor David Nelson to be assessed against defendants.
In a letter dated April 20 from Henshaw to Pawlaczyk, Henshaw explained the several obstacles his office had in following through on the prosecution, including inability to locate the alleged victim, no eyewitnesses to the alleged sexual assault, and the results of a complete colonoscopy done on the alleged victim three days after the alleged incident, which showed nothing abnormal (although that in itself is not necessarily telling.)
Nevertheless, McGuire, represented by the very capable Clemons, did NOT have to accept the plea agreement and ergo the suggested amount of fines and fees withdrawn from the bond money. Because the state had a weak case with all the obstacles, it was likely that McGuire would have prevailed in a jury trial.
However, it’s also very possible that McGuire, knowing the real circumstances of that night, may have thought his chances weren’t quite as good as they looked on paper.
McGuire was not, therefore, ‘forced’ into either the plea deal or giving up the five grand for the drug fund. Represented by his attorney, he accepted the negotiated deal willingly, and the matter was done.
The June 2011 issue is still available by back issue order only, if anyone would like to read it, but this is the pertinent excerpt. Links to other articles about McGuire are at this linked article.
As his case progresses through the Wyoming court, we’ll keep you updated; check back frequently.