Washington County Prosecutor Kevin Rings listens to opening statements during his trial for coercion and sexual imposition on Monday at the Washington County Courthouse. (Photo by Chad Plauche-Adkins)
MARIETTA — Ohio Attorney General prosecutors said Washington County Prosecutor Kevin Rings used his position to exploit vulnerable women on Monday during opening statements in Rings’ trial.
The defense said Rings was just doing his job by trying to help a victim put her abusive boyfriend in jail.
Rings is charged with a second-degree misdemeanor count of coercion and a third-degree misdemeanor count of sexual imposition. He is alleged to have exchanged hundreds of texts with a woman who accused him of misconduct both through the texts and in person. Monday was the first day of the trial, consisting of about six hours of jury selection and opening arguments. Testimony will begin today.
Ohio Attorney General’s Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Reed used opening statements to lay the groundwork that Rings used his position to try and take advantage of women who were in dire straits.
“He used his job to find the vulnerabilities of women and exploit them,” Reed told jurors. “He had access to victims…victims like Amy Davis.”
Judge Patricia Cosgrove watches as Ohio Attorney General Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Reed gives her opening statement to jurors on Monday at the Washington County Courthouse. (Photo by Chad Plauche-Adkins)
According to the prosecution, in June and July of 2017, Rings was first prosecuting Davis, who at the time was 32, of Vienna, on a fourth-degree felony drug charge and was waiting for sentencing. He was also working on her behalf as a victim after she was kidnapped and beaten by her boyfriend.
Reed said the defense would falsely try and say Rings was trying to help Davis with her situation.
“He was helping her as a man with selfish needs and desires,” Reed said. “The defense will tell you how low she was.”
During jury selection, the defense made sure the prospective jurors didn’t have any bias against someone who had a drug addiction. None of the jurors indicated they would have a bias towards someone like Davis.
Reed went on to say in opening statements that text messages between Rings and Davis included photos of Rings’ family life.
“He was trying to build a perceived relationship with Davis,” Reed said. “When she was too busy…that’s when he threatened her.”
Reed said that after Davis refused to meet Rings in his office on July 4 when nobody would be there, he sent her threatening texts about her sentencing. Reed said Davis then agreed to meet Rings in his office on July 6 of 2017, where the alleged sexual misconduct occurred.
“He put his hand under her shirt,” Reed said.
Reed went on to say that jurors can’t think of Davis as a lawbreaker or put Rings on a pedestal because he is an elected official.
“Amy Davis isn’t below the law and Kevin Rings isn’t above it,” she said.
Dennis McNamara, defense attorney for Rings, started his opening statement by describing Rings’ previous “criminal past.”
“About 20 years ago he got a speeding ticket in South Carolina and he paid it, that’s it,” he said.
McNamara said that Davis had a felony drug conviction in 2017, and was already scheduled to go to jail on Aug. 11 of that year per a plea agreement. McNamara said that Rings was trying to put Davis’ boyfriend in jail after she was kidnapped by him and beaten over a two-day period in 2017 as well. McNamara said Rings’ frustration in the texts had to do with Davis no longer wanting to participate with prosecution in getting her dangerous boyfriend in jail.
McNamara said the texts that the prosecution will use in the trial to say that Rings threatened her by saying he would see her in jail weren’t threatening. They were just stating the facts of her plea agreement to go to jail on Aug. 11.
Rings faces up to 150 days in jail and up to a $1,250 fine if found guilty.
“That’s where she was going to be,” he said.
McNamara said selfies taken by Davis of herself wearing lingerie that were sent to Rings shows that she was a willing participant in the dialogue.
“The contact was offensive to her?” McNamara asked the jury sarcastically. “(Rings) did not commit coercion, he did not commit sexual imposition.”
Following McNamara’s opening statements, Patricia Cosgrove, retired Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge and Washington County Common Pleas Court special judge ended the day’s court proceedings.
“Return at 8:45 (a.m.)…Testimony will begin at 9 (a.m.),” she ordered the six-woman and two-man jury.
Ohio law says only eight jurors are required for misdemeanor cases instead of the 12 required for felony cases.
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