Trial postponed in police stalking case
Published Feb. 17, 2006
The trial of Todd Smith, a former Columbia Police Department officer arrested on suspicion of stalking his ex-girlfriend while using police resources, has been pushed back until March 31, and his bond lowered from $10,000 to $1,000.
Smith was arrested and fired from the department Dec. 30 after allegations that he stalked his ex-girlfriend and used police equipment to track her whereabouts at least once.
Smith's trial, originally set for Tuesday, was pushed back until March because Howard County prosecuting attorney Mason Gebhardt said he wasn't prepared for the trial yet.
"I hadn't even gotten all the reports from Boone County yet, so I wasn't quite ready to go to trial yet," Gebhardt said. "We'll be ready on March 31, though."
Gebhardt was assigned the case because of a close working relationship between Boone County prosecuting attorney Kevin Crane and Smith.
Gebhardt decided to proceed with the trial despite Smith's ex-girlfriend's reservations.
"The victim doesn't want this guy ruined, so I'm walking kind of a fine line in this case," Gebhardt said.
Smith's attorney, Milt Harper, said he doesn't understand why the trial is going forward.
"In this case, the victim doesn't want prosecution anyway," Harper said. "She wants the charges to be dismissed."
Smith's bond originally was set at $10,000, along with a condition that he not contact his ex-girlfriend. The condition later was changed to prohibit any unlawful contact with the woman, and this week, the condition was dropped entirely with woman's the consent, and the bond lowered to $1,000.
"I've been in contact with the victim throughout this case, and she was fine with lowering the bond, and she was OK with lifting the condition that they not have contact also," Gebhardt said.
"The bond was too high in the first place. It wasn't the prosecutor's fault or anything. He didn't have anything to do with it. Certainly we didn't need a $10,000 bond for a police officer to show up in court," Harper said. "This is just a correction of something that just happened."
Harper said the publicity surrounding the case upset Smith.
"My client can't figure out why he was fired when the officer caught driving drunk was allowed to resign," Harper said, referring to the Jan. 27 resignation of Columbia Police officer Jerry Greene. Greene was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Columbia Police Chief Randy Boehm gave Greene the option to resign.