Sentencing is set for Friday afternoon for a former Missouri state trooper convicted of felony sexual abuse and misdemeanor kidnapping for a 2023 incident at Columbia’s Hampton Inn near Faurot Field.
32-year-old Jeffery Durbin of Madison has been convicted. Boone County prosecutors say the incident happened at the Hampton Inn and Suites near Faurot Field, during a law enforcement training session.
Defense attorney Scott Rosenblum questioned the woman’s credibility during the trial, saying she had 11 or 12 beers that night and couldn’t remember some details of what she told authorities two years ago. One of those details was how many beers the woman had. But Boone County assistant prosecutor Risa Perkins told the jury that Durbin put his hand in the woman’s pants that night and that he pinned her against a wall. The woman is a police officer in the St. Louis region. The woman testified that she had four beers at dinner with other officers that night at Stadium Grill and another two that evening in Durbin’s hotel room.
Prosecutor Perkins asked for five years in prison for the convictions, while Rosenblum asked the jury for mercy. He called Durbin’s wife, Whitney, to the stand. She sobbed throughout her testimony and says she’s forgiven her husband. The St. Louis officer cried on the stand as well, saying she has suffered trauma and has relied on God to get her through this. The jury is recommending no prison time and a possible fine for the sexual abuse conviction, and they’re requesting up to three months in the county jail and a possible fine for misdemeanor kidnapping.
Boone County circuit judge Joshua Calvin Devine will sentence Durbin at 1 pm today at the Boone County Courthouse. Under Missouri state law, Judge Devine cannot go higher than the jury’s recommendation, but he can go lower if he chooses to do so. That means the most time Durbin will serve is 90 days in jail.
