A Ferrelview public official who had been accused of assault was found not guilty by a Platte County judge on Friday.
Theresa L. Wilson, 52, was found not guilty after a bench trial in front of Judge Dennis Eckold.
“I was very relieved that the truth prevailed in this case,” Wilson told The Landmark this week.
She was represented in her case by attorney Dennis Rowland.
“Dennis helped tremendously with my defense,” she said.
Last year at this time, the Platte County Prosecutor’s Office had levied a misdemeanor charge of assault in the fourth degree against Wilson, who at the time was chairman of the Village of Ferrelview Board of Trustees. She still serves on the board but is no longer chairman.
The charge related to an incident that allegedly happened in the moments after she had adjourned a board meeting at City Hall in November of 2017.
“It’s a bogus charge. My lawyer says I should have nothing to worry about. I was never within arm’s reach of that woman,” Wilson told The Landmark last year at the time the charge was filed.
The incident in question occurred the night of Nov. 14, 2017 at a meeting of the Ferrelview trustees, the town’s elected governing body. Platte County Sheriff’s Department deputies responded to City Hall at about 7:15 p.m. Dispatch had advised deputies they received “counter alarms” from City Hall and a reporting party had called in, citing four to five people were “fighting and causing city council members to fear for their life,” according to court documents.
Wilson and other city council members had adjourned the session early during the audience participation portion of the meeting due to unruly behavior and several outbursts from audience members.
According to court documents, an alleged assault had occurred between Wilson and a victim identified in court papers only as K.S. According to the documents, K.S. had apparently confronted Wilson in the hallway about false claims Wilson had allegedly made about K.S.’s fiancé.
During this confrontation, Wilson walked down the hallway and allegedly shoved K.S. against the wall repeatedly, “causing K.S. to fall against the wall and shout for help,” the allegations stated. A fellow audience member, identified in court papers as L.W., allegedly heard K.S.’s shouts for help and placed herself between the two other females.
K.S. was three months pregnant at the time, according to court documents. In a signed, written statement to police, Wilson stated that L.W. attempted to falsely imprison her in the hallway by stopping her progress down the hall with her body. Wilson only told police she had an exchange of words with K.S.
Wilson told police she had to physically push herself against the wall to get around L.W. and continue walking down the hall.
“They (audience members) pretty much attacked the board table and now I’m being charged criminally. I’ve never had a criminal charge in my life,” Wilson said in an interview with The Landmark last year.
“I feel like I will be vindicated,” Wilson remarked at the time the charge was filed. “The truth will come out.”
Wilson said the alleged victim in the case “filed for an ex parte against me (in recent months), there was a hearing on it and she lost.”
Wilson was correct in her prediction that she would be vindicated.
“I’m very excited that I was exonerated,” she said Monday.