News

Actions

City employees, councilman served subpoenas to testify in arraignment of aggravated sexual assault suspect

Posted at 3:12 PM, Jul 20, 2017
and last updated 2018-07-24 21:30:57-04

Two officers, three city employees, a former police chief and a councilman from Meridian were among the people served subpoenas to appear at a Bosque County Courthouse on Monday.

They are being asked to testify on behalf of the state during an arraignment evidentiary hearing for Nelson Lee Bibles. He faces four counts of aggravated sexual assault of an elderly/disabled person and four counts of sexual assault. He is accused of having sex with a 31-year-old woman with disabilities and touching her inappropriately.

Sgt. Curtis Rust, Officer Brian Wallace, City Administrator Marie Garland, Director of Public Works Michael Walker, Public Works Employee Jimmy Johnson, Councilman Ryan Nieuwenhuis, former Chief of Meridian Police Chris Blanton and David Klose were served the subpoenas on Monday.

Nieuwenhuis told News Channel 25 he doesn't know the defendant in the case and is not aware the reason behind being served the subpoena.

"I have no idea. The only thing I know is I helped moved a file cabinet in the evidence room which police office Brian Wallace was there. There shouldn't really be an issue," Nieuwenhuis said.

He believes this happened when he was helping to move the police department from its previous location to City Hall.

"The officers moved all the evidence like we asked them and then there was a locked filed cabinet and that's what I moved along with furniture and different things," Nieuwenhuis said.

Rust who was also served a subpoena said he doesn't know the reason behind the subpoenas being served.

"Honestly, I don't have any knowledge of why I was served the subpoena at all. I just know I was given the paper and told I had to be at court," Rust said.

He said he will not be able to attend because he is going on deployment. 

The court hearing will be at 9 a.m. at the 220th District Court in Bosque County.

Copyright 2017 KXXV. All rights reserved.