Twenty-three years in prison is a long time and it appears six months (two years including the time she spent behind bars while awaiting trial) is about all Rita Glasgow can take.
Glasgow pleaded guilty July 25 to two felony counts of driving while intoxicated resulting in death in connection with the January 4, 2021 crash that killed Terry and Rhonda Copple.
In a motion filed Monday in Jasper County Circuit, Glasgow, acting on her own behalf, claimed she had ineffective counsel who did not allow her to call witnesses on her behalf and ignored her when she asked for a change of venue.
Glasgow, who is serving time at the Chillicothe Correctional Center, asked the judge to appoint a public defender to represent her.
It may not get that far since Glasgow answered a series of questions from the judge during her sentencing hearing and said under oath she had no problems with the effectiveness of her lawyer Craig Lowe.
Glasgow's sentence may have been a bargain since the prosecuting attorney also had the option of filing murder charges against her.
The Copples were killed while Glasgow, who was high on meth and driving a stolen vehicle, drove through the intersection at 28th Street and Connecticut Avenue and plowed into an SUV killing the Copples.
The tampering with a motor vehicle charge was dismissed as part of a plea agreement with the Jasper County Prosecuting Attorney's office.
A decision to grant Glasgow a trial or even representation after her guilty plea would be the latest in a long series of judicial and prosecutorial decisions that enabled her to skate past paying for one felony after another.
Her extensive record of breaking the law and not being punished for it was detailed in the January 4, 2021 Turner Report:
The 2019 arrest came after Newton County deputies determined Glasgow was driving with expired plates and tried to pull her over. She fled, eventually crashing her vehicle on McClelland Boulevard.
The probable cause statement indicated Glasgow had two rocks of methamphetamine, two bags of marijuana, three syringes and a drug pipe.
The meth possession case occurred as a result of an October 6, 2017 incident in a convenience store parking lot at 2115 Connecticut Avenue, Joplin, where she was asleep in her car for more than a hour.
A search of her purse turned up 28 bags of methamphetamine, according to the probable cause statement.
Two months later, the Joplin Police Department arrested Glasgow for felony tampering with a motor vehicle in the first degree.
Judge Joseph Hensley set bond at $150 after Glasgow failed to appear at a January 15, 2020 hearing.
After that, court hearings were delayed due to the pandemic. Her next hearing was scheduled for May 20.
Glasgow failed to show.
Hensley issued a warrant and again set her bond at $150.
Glasgow was finally arraigned June 25 on the tampering charge. The hearing was held three months after Newton County authorities arrested Glasgow on a second meth trafficking charge, which occurred after a pursuit that began in Cherokee County, Kansas, and ended on MO 86 in Newton County.
Despite the second drug trafficking arrest and Glasgow's propensity for not showing for court hearings, Judge Hensley again allowed her to remain free while awaiting trial.
Glasgow's next court appearance was scheduled for July 29. Glasgow was a no-show and Hensley issued a warrant and set bond at $10,000.
Glasgow's next hearing was September 10. She wasn't there. The judge ordered her bond forfeited.
Online court records indicate Glasgow has not appeared at a Jasper County court hearing since June 25.
Not that things were much better in Newton County.
After Glasgow's second arrest on meth trafficking charges, Judge Anna Christine Rhoades released her on her own recognizance on January 3, 2020, one year to the day before Glasgow allegedly drove drunk and killed Terry and Rhonda Copple.
Online court records show Glasgow has a clear pattern of drug arrests dating back to age 17.
During a February 2021 hearing in Jasper County Circuit Court, one month after the Copples died, Judge Dean Dankelson sentenced Glasgow to seven years in prison after she pleaded guilty to the October 2017 meth possession charge.
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2 comments:
Thank you Randy for providing details of a comprehensive criminal history. This person was given multiple chances to redeem herself. She chose to make bad decisions that ended up costing the lives of two innocent people. She should serve the entire 25 years. It will still not be Justice because the people are still dead. However it might keep someone else from dying because of her. When some people are sent to prison, that is exactly where they should be.
She’s lucky it’s not an eye for an eye. She should shut her stupid mouth and embrace her punishment. After all she killed people.
And why the hell is Jasper County Prosecutors agreeing to a plea deal.
Jasper County Prosecutors and Judges need their feet held to the fire.
Did the victim on the tampering with a vehicle agree to dismissing the tampering charge?
Vote these spineless judges and prosecutors out of office
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