The Franklin County man who was wounded when Missouri Highway Patrol investigators went to arrest him last September is scheduled to stand trial on felony charges in four months.
During a hearing Wednesday to modify the bond for Jeffery Weinhaus, Prosecuting Attorney Bob Parks requested that a trial date be set and the defendant and his attorney agreed.
Judge Gael Wood then scheduled a three-day trial to begin April 30.
Judge Wood took the bond motion under advisement but did not indicate when he would rule on it.
Weinhaus is facing multiple felony charges, some stemming from the Sept. 11 confrontation with law enforcement officers at a gas station south of St. Clair.
He currently is being held in the county jail on a $50,000 cash-only bond. Last month, Judge Wood reduced the bond from $250,000 cash bond, which he ordered after Weinhaus was indicted by a county grand jury Nov. 27. A previous article incorrectly reported that Judge Ike Lamke set the bond at $250,000. The Missourian regrets the error.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Weinhaus’ attorney requested the judge set an open or recognizance bond while the prosecutor argued that the bond remain at $50,000 cash-only.
On the stand, Weinhaus stated that he was not getting the treatment needed for his injuries sustained in the shooting and that the jail personnel was not taking care of his medical needs and getting him into therapy, according to Parks.
The prosecutor said on cross examination, Weinhaus acknowledged that he had made some appointments.
Lt. Dave Boehm, jail superintendent, testified that his department had received a list of all of Weinhaus’ appointments and arranged for him to make them.
“Our evidence showed that he got all the treatments ordered by his doctors,” Parks told The Missourian.
“Not only was he getting all the treatment ordered, he had been discharged by some of his physicians,” Parks said.
Parks said during questioning, Weinhaus admitted that when troopers had ordered him to lie down on the ground, he told them that they would have to shoot him.
At that time, the troopers were attempting to serve an arrest warrant charging Weinhaus with possession of a controlled substance (morphine) and tampering with a judicial officer, both felonies, and a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.
The grand jury indictment includes those original charges plus five additional felony counts, including two counts each of attempted assault on a law enforcement officer and armed criminal action and one count of resisting arrest.
The investigators allege that they shot Weinhaus when he refused to comply with them and began drawing a handgun.
Investigators with the highway patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control went to serve a search warrant Aug. 22 for the seizure of computers belonging to Weinhaus based on alleged threats directed at law enforcement and judicial officials in Crawford County. Weinhaus broadcast those video blogs from his home off Highway K, south of St. Clair.
When Weinhaus opened the door, the troopers smelled marijuana smoke coming from the house. After Weinhaus refused to let them search the home, they obtained another search warrant and inside they seized a misdemeanor amount of marijuana and some pills, later identified as containing morphine.
Weinhaus, who has described himself as a born-again Christian and both a political activist and a political prisoner, has been provoking politicians, judges and law enforcement officials in several eastern Missouri counties for years.
Authorities allege that Weinhaus made multiple threats against Crawford County officials in recent months. That’s what led to the seizure of his computers and the Franklin County warrant.
Weinhaus, 45, a longtime anti-government, anti-law enforcement Internet blogger, was arrested Nov. 1 when he appeared in court for a bond reduction hearing.
