Stephen Herzog

SHERZOG@NEWS-LEADER.COM

After a judge found one Saudi Arabian man not guilty in the sexual assault and kidnapping of a woman from a Springfield nightclub, prosecutors tried twice to get the judge tossed from the remaining defendant's case.

When those attempts failed, prosecutors elected to restart that second defendant's case from scratch.

Within the last week, Judge Calvin Holden declined a request to remove himself from that second case and an appeals court denied the same. Monday afternoon, prosecutor Stephanie Wan dropped the original charges and refiled them — sending the case back to associate circuit court, where it will be heard by a different judge.

Rayan Alqabbaa, 22, was scheduled for a bench trial — meaning no jury, just a judge — today in connection with a kidnapping case that's already seen his friend and co-defendant Ahmed Alanazi go free. Prosecutors wrote they were concerned Holden wouldn't give them a fair chance in the second case after tipping his hand that he thought Alqabbaa was innocent.

Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson filed a motion last week for a change of judge, saying that Holden had shown prejudice in the Alanazi trial by not allowing closing arguments and by unnecessarily writing decisions about Alqabbaa's innocence in the ruling about Alanazi.

"In this case, (Holden) has, as set out in his 'Decision' in the Alanazi case, prejudged the conduct and guilt of (Alqabbaa) and prejudged the victim's conduct as well and is not impartial," Patterson wrote in the filing. "Further, (Holden) made these judgments after denying (prosecutors) the opportunity of arguing the Alanazi case — argument that may have corrected premature misjudgments and avoided an erroneous verdict."

Holden denied the motion Friday, and according to an appeal filed by Patterson on Monday, went so far as to say Patterson's motion for a new judge had been a "PR stunt."

Patterson filed a motion with the Southern Appellate Court on Monday morning, asking to have Holden removed from the trial. That petition was denied, according to online court records.

Attorney Dee Wampler, who represents Alqabbaa and previously represented Alanazi, said Monday that he believed the charges will be dismissed but did not elaborate. Attempts to ask the prosecuting attorney more questions about the case failed.

The case is now scheduled to go to Judge Dan Imhof.

Prosecutors say, in a court document filed Monday, that they "agree that (Alqabbaa) may be released on the previously posted $100,000 bond upon his surrender to the court," meaning Alqabbaa wouldn't have to be arrested again.

Officials said last year that Alqabbaa and Alanazi took a woman from Zan nightclub against her will on June 1, 2013, took her to an apartment and sexually assaulted her. One problem in the case apparent in the first trial was that the woman's story was different throughout the case. She said her memory was improving, but Wampler accused her of making it up and being intoxicated.

Holden also reviewed video of the defendant the night of the alleged crimes and said it appeared Alqabbaa was "nothing but polite" to the woman.

In the ruling for Alanazi, Holden says the woman "does believe something did happen to her that night. However, the court finds (she) cannot reliably say what happened or who may have done something to her." Testimony in the first trial proved to the judge that the woman had been too intoxicated to say for sure what happened to her.

Alqabbaa has been free on bail since December, when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia posted a $1 million bond, just as it did for Alanazi. A judge later reduced the bond to $100,000, refunding the rest to the Saudi Arabian consulate.