KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A man charged with kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman penned a letter defending his character to a judge handling his child custody case.
Police arrested Timothy Haslett, Jr., of Excelsior Springs, in October. A woman accused him of abducting her and holding her against her will for weeks.
Haslett addressed the criminal charges while writing to a judge about a child custody case involving his ex-wife and son.
He claims his ex-wife is trying to cut him off from their son through a temporary restraining order and trying to modify their custody agreement.
The judge granted the request for the restraining order following Haslett’s arrest. The judge determined Haslett’s ex-wife presented enough evidence to support her claims against Haslett.
In the letter, Haslett wrote that he doesn’t believe the hearing is needed. Haslett wrote his ex-wife already has full custody of their son because he is in jail facing criminal charges in the kidnapping and assault case.
“I am currently being held on a $500,000 bond and have no intention of attempting to seek revocation or of posting said bond as I have no assets to do so and so not now or in the future will any 3rd party to do so on my behalf. And as my case has not even had its initial pretrial hearing yet, it is safe to say that I’m not going anywhere for awhile,” Haslett wrote to the judge.
Bond was set at $500,000 because prosecutors allege Haslett held a woman against her will in the basement of the Excelsior Springs home where he and his son lived. Court documents show the woman told officers she was able to escape when Haslett left to take his son to school.
In the letter to the judge, Haslett writes that he hasn’t been convicted of any of those crimes and doesn’t believe the allegations should be held against him when it comes to custody of his son.
“As to the nature of the allegations against me, while I understand the allegations are serious, they are nothing more than that. The state has not yet entered any facts onto the record against me nor have I been allowed to enter any in my defense, which there are plenty of. I do not believe that allegations against me, which I have a constitutional right to the presumption of innocence of, meet the standard of a preponderance of evidence required to grant an order of protection,” Haslett wrote.
He also wrote that he is not charged with hurting either his ex-wife or his son, and that he does not pose a threat to either one.
“As to the nature of the claim itself that [they] are in danger or in any immediate risk of physical harm by me or anyone at my behest. I say that any such claim is spurious and not born from any specks of truth. And any claim otherwise is slanderous,” Haslett wrote.
Haslett’s preliminary hearing on the criminal charges that a judge scheduled for Friday morning was postponed. A bench trial in the custody case is scheduled to begin Jan. 3.
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