Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Appeals court denies release for Joplin child molester


All Robert Buggey had to do to get out of serving his 15-year sentence for child molestation was to successfully pass a court-ordered program for sex offenders and get a recommendation from the probation and parole officer.

After he finished the program, Judge Gayle Crane, relying on the officer's report, determined Buggey, the former floor manager at Tilt Studios at Northpark Mall, ordered Buggey to serve the remainder of his sentence.

Today, The Missouri Southern District Court of Appeals agreed with Crane, issuing a unanimous opinion affirming her decision.







In his appeal, Buggey claimed the fact that he completed the program was enough for him to be released after four months.

Crane followed the probation and parole officer's recommendation, which was included in the opinion:

This officer would respectfully recommend probation be denied in this case, given the circumstances of the present offense. [Relator] sexually victimized a four-year-old child, a child who will forever be impacted by his actions. 

According to the probable cause statement, the crimes allegedly took place in 2021 with the 4-year-old girl who was at a friend's home during June and July and involved Buggey showing the child pornography on his phone and then convincing her to do the same sexual acts that were in the video.








The child said the crimes took place when her mother went to the store and happened multiple tims.

Jasper County Sheriff's Office investigators arrested Buggey after he confirmed he had been at the residence with the child and her mother.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

No deals for child sexual predators, NOT EVER. When there is absolutely no doubt of their guilt, they should be executed.

Anonymous said...

We don't negotiate with terrorists we damn sure shouldn't with child molestors,he's where he should b plain and simple!

Anonymous said...

Everyone wants to be tough on child molesters when they don’t consider forcing a 4 year old to testify in court.