Region digest 01/25/03

Cape library to put on 'Monologues' in February

The Cape Girardeau Public Library's board of directors voted Friday to host a staged reading of "The Vagina Monologues" in the facility's community room.

Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs of Jackson, who is an adjunct professor in the Communications Department at Southeast Missouri State University, will perform the reading at 7 p.m. on Feb. 14. The event is part of a worldwide observance by V-Day, an organization devoted to preventing violence against women and girls.

Admission is free, but Clubbs will be accepting donations of money or new items for the Safe House for Women shelter in Cape Girardeau.

The play, written by Eve Ensler, is a collection of soliloquies that celebrate being female and explain the horrors of violence against women. For more information, call the library at 334-5279.

More charges filed against Perryville man

Two new felony sex charges were filed Friday against a Perryville, Mo., man investigators say had sexual intercourse with a child less than 12 years of age.

Donald E. Dunn Jr. has been in the Cape Girardeau County Jail since December, facing previous statutory sex and assault charges. But prosecutors added first-degree statutory rape and sodomy charges on Friday after learning another child victim has come forward with new allegations against Dunn, said Lt. David James of the sheriff's department.

Dunn was arrested and charged Dec. 23 with third-degree assault, second-degree statutory rape and three counts of second-degree statutory sodomy on suspicion of sexual intercourse, deviate sexual intercourse and knowingly causing physical contact with a person under 17 years of age.

He waived a preliminary hearing on those charges on Wednesday and is scheduled to make his first appearance in circuit court Feb. 3.

Dunn is being held on a total bond of $150,000.

Former Cardwell clerk must pay back $12,658

KENNETT, Mo. -- A former city clerk at Cardwell, Mo., has pleaded guilty to stealing.

Melanie Back pleaded guilty to one felony count of stealing and one felony count of forgery. She entered the pleas in Dunklin County Circuit Court on Wednesday.

Judge Stephen Sharp ordered five years of supervised probation on the condition Back make restitution to the city in the amount of $12,658.

Back had been charged with one count of stealing and 13 counts of forgery in conjunction with missing money from the city treasury at Cardwell.

Prosecutors: Church thefts fed gambling habit

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- An Independence man who has been charged with breaking into several small churches committed the crimes to support his gambling habit, prosecutors said.

Jeffrey A. Richardson, 47, was charged Thursday with five counts of second-degree burglary and one count of second-degree arson in church burglaries dating back to November in eastern Jackson County.

According to court documents, Richardson is responsible for 27 church burglaries in Blue Springs, Independence and Lee's Summit.

Police say the intruder focused on many smaller churches and often came away with little. Church officials say church money is rarely left in the buildings.

A police affidavit says Richardson stole from the churches because of his gambling habit. Richardson is being held on $100,000 bond. No date has been set for his next court appearance.

-- From staff, wire reports