Probation granted Pierce City man in domestic assault, sexual abuse cases

Dec. 30—MOUNT VERNON, Mo. — A Pierce City man was granted suspended sentences and probation this month when he pleaded guilty to domestic assault and sexual abuse charges.

Curtis W. Briggs, 49, was charged with sexually abusing a mentally disabled couple in March in Aurora and with assaulting his wife in September at their residence near Pierce City.

Briggs pleaded guilty Dec. 14 in Lawrence County Circuit Court to counts of first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree domestic assault in a plea deal calling for suspended sentences. Circuit Judge David Cole accepted the plea agreement and assessed Briggs seven years on each count with execution of the sentences suspended and the defendant placed on supervised probation for five years.

Probable-cause affidavits filed in the cases alleged that Briggs had entered the bedroom of a mentally disabled couple while they were watching a movie March 2 and kissed the male on the cheek. The other man told Briggs to leave him alone, and the defendant walked over to the man's girlfriend, put his hands down her shirt and groped her. He then allegedly proceeded to put his hands down her pants, according to an affidavit.

The domestic assault Sept. 15 involved an argument the defendant got into with his wife when he had been drinking. She purportedly asked him to leave and he grabbed her by the throat and pushed her up against the side of their house.

Briggs began throwing objects around, striking his wife with a toy box before getting in a van and twice ramming their porch with it. His wife's two children were in the house at the time, according to an affidavit.

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