A judge in Pottawattamie County is expected to render his decision this (Thursday) afternoon, on a request for defense attorneys representing John Osborn, to dismiss the case against him. The 47-year old Council Bluffs man, a former assistant girls softball coach, is charged with four counts of third-degree sexual abuse for an alleged relationship with a 14-year-old girl. He’s alleged to have engaged in sex acts with the girl on the night of July 16, 2014, and into July 17. The Daily NonPareil report Osborn’s defense team filed the motion to dismiss charges after alleging impropriety by the prosecution.
Defense attorney Jordan Glaser argues in the motion that a piece of evidence obtained by the state in late January wasn’t made available until Feb. 6, the second day of trial, calling it “needlessly late.” The prosecution filed a resistance to the motion, denying the allegations made by the defense and asking for Fourth District Court Judge Richard Davidson to overrule the request to dismiss the case.
The state and defense rested their cases last Friday after calling a number of witnesses, including the alleged victim; Osborn; his wife, Michaela; and his daughter. Closing arguments were delayed to allow Glaser time to examine the documents in question, which include a series of text communications between the accuser and her boyfriend and Osborn’s daughter on the days in question.
When the prosecution presented part of the file as evidence during the testimony of the accuser at trial on Thursday, Glaser objected, saying he hadn’t seen the file. The trial continued, with a caveat that the evidence be turned over to the defense for examination. In the motion, Glaser writes that the time-stamp on “almost every single piece of information produced by the state” Friday showed the state had the information in its possession since Jan. 23.
In the resistance, Dan McGinn of the Pottawattamie County Attorney’s Office said most of the evidence was turned over before the trial started, on Feb. 3. He referred to messages provided on Friday as “immaterial and irrelevant information.”
Judge Davidson is scheduled to make a decision on the defense motion at 2 p.m. today before both sides deliver closing arguments.
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