BENTON, Mo. -- Hearing the testimony of one witness, the alleged assault victim, at Rod Jetton's preliminary hearing Wednesday, Associate Circuit Judge Terry L. Brown found probable cause to bring the case to trial.

Jetton, 42, a former Missouri House speaker, appeared with his attorney, Stephen C. Wilson, at the Scott County Courthouse for the first time since he was charged with felony assault in November.

Scott County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Boyd introduced 14 photographs of the victim's facial, neck and thigh bruising into evidence. All injuries were caused by Jetton, she said, the night of Nov. 15.

"I had never felt that way before," said Mary Elizabeth Lowe, the Sikeston, Mo., woman who accused Jetton of assault. "I was scared, I was scared for my life."

The beating, Lowe testified, began after Jetton arrived at her home and they shared a bottle of wine. After she finished a glass, everything became "very fuzzy," she testified, and he tried to pull her pants off. When she told him no, Lowe said, Jetton repeatedly hit her across the left side of her head.

"I remember just being in a struggle and trying to get my hands free," Lowe said. "I remember coming to again and he was choking me. I couldn't scream ... I couldn't reach him to get off of me."

Brown, a Mississippi County judge, was assigned to Jetton's case in early January after Wilson filed for a change of judge at Jetton's initial arraignment.

Lowe told the court that after going in and out of consciousness, she woke up a third time and Jetton had taken her into her bedroom and was having sexual intercourse with her. She also said at one point her hands were bound together with a belt. The photographs entered into evidence don't show bruising around her wrists; instead they revealed bruising on the left side of her face, her neck, left thigh and right ankle.

The photographs, Lowe said, don't depict how painful the injuries were.

"I was unable to put pressure on that side of my face at all," she said. "It was a good week before I could apply pressure on that leg."

According to the Lowe's testimony, she and Jetton were classmates in Charleston, Mo., and connected via Facebook a few months before the alleged assault. Their relationship was professional at first but became more social when the pair began to talk over the phone and through text messaging. She admitted that, at times, the conversations were sexual in nature.

"We definitely flirted a lot on the phone," Lowe said.

When questioned by Wilson about the nature of the texts and phone calls, Lowe denied asking to be hit and punched during intercourse.

"Did you text 'I'm disobedient and you may have to punish me' to Mr. Jetton?" Wilson asked Lowe. "Did you say 'If it's not rough, it isn't fun'?"

Lowe said while their text messages were playful and they talked about sex, she didn't text those words exactly.

"I recall talking how we were going to pleasure each other. I didn't know he'd like it rough," Lowe said.

Lowe admitted that in a phone conversation before Jetton's visit in November, the two discussed using a safe word -- "green balloons" -- during sex.

The morning after the alleged assault, Lowe said Jetton was still in her home and she heard him talking business on his cell phone. She was too scared to move, she said, so laid in bed, waiting for him to leave.

"At one point I remember him lightly touching my eye and saying 'You should have said green balloons,'" Lowe said.

Due to the Nov. 15 beating, Lowe testified, she is still suffering some jaw pain and has been seeing an orthodontist. She has difficulty chewing and talking, she said, and suffered severe pain four weeks after the incident.

Jetton's next hearing is scheduled for March 10 in Scott County.

ehevern@semissourian.com

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