Former state trooper found guilty of sexual abuse, kidnapping

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Boone County jury found a former state trooper guilty of sexual assault and kidnapping Friday after a three-day trial.

Jeffery Durbin had been charged with sexual abuse, a felony, and third-degree kidnapping, a misdemeanor. The jury returned the verdict after deliberating for about three hours.

Durbin and his accuser each took the stand Thursday. Durbin defense attorney Scott Rosenblum on cross-examination tried to convince the jury that the encounter was consensual.

The woman had accused Durbin of assaulting her and keeping her inside his hotel room after she tried to escape during a conference on DWI training at the Hampton Inn and Suites in Columbia in March 2023. The woman testified that she and Durbin had been drinking but that she had tried to rebuff his advances.

The jury recommended no prison time for the sex abuse charge, but recommended the court fine Durbin. It also recommended a three-month sentence in the county jail for the kidnapping charge, in addition to a fine.

Durbin will be formally sentenced at 1 p.m. Friday, April 4 at the Boone County Courthouse.

Closing statements from the prosecution started a little before 9:30 a.m. Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Risa Perkins reminded jurors of her opening statement, when she said the victim in the case should have been safe when she decided to visit Durbin's hotel room that night.

"He couldn't take a hint when she scooted away from his feet," Perkins said. "He couldn't take a hint when she pushed his body away from her. And ultimately he couldn't take a hint when she walked out of his hotel door. He flirted. She left. Those are the actions that the defense wants you to believe are flirting."

The defense tried to argue that the woman went back into Durbin's room on her own after leaving. But prosecutors argued that video showed Durbin grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back in.

"Throughout the course of the trial, we quarreled over whether it was a tug or a pull or a yank or a guide," Perkins said. "But what we've all agreed to is that the defendant used his person to grab ahold of the victim in today's case and bring her back into the room that she left. That, I would argue to you, is forcible compulsion."

The defense focused on how much the woman had to drink that night but not on Durbin's intoxication, Perkins said.

"She, according to them [the defense] should have never been intoxicated in a married man's hotel room. They don't tell you that he maybe should have never invited her," Perkins said.

Defense attorney Scott Rosenblum also began by revisiting his opening statements.

"Two days ago, I said in my opening statement what this case is about," Rosenblum said. "I told you what this case is about. It's about people that have regrets."

Rosenblum said that when the victim took the stand Thursday, she was not honoring her oath. He said she often answered under her narrative because she did not want to directly answer his pointed questions.

"Every step of the way she dodged the questions," Rosenblum said. "A simple question such as, 'Do you think that 12 beers in your perception may have been altered?'" Rosenblum said. "'Do you think the reality may have been altered?' Every other police officer [witnesses] said they would be concerned about that. But she refused to admit that."

Rosenblum highlighted discrepancies in the woman's testimony for jurors compared to transcripts of her interviews with investigators.

"How many times throughout the course of her testimony did you hear these words, 'If that's what the transcript said, I must have said it,'" Rosenblum said. "Over and over when confronted with her prior statements."

He said the woman minimized the amount she had had to drink that night while on the stand.

"These aren't little mistakes," Rosenblum said. "These are lies under oath."

Rosenblum said Durbin did not have to take the witness stand Thursday but he did anyway.

"Jeff Durbin is not guilty," Rosenblum said. "We're not looking for a compromise verdict."

Check back for updates to this developing story.