Presiding Circuit Judge Gael Wood has taken under advisement a motion to amend the bond of a man wounded by state troopers in an incident last September.
Judge Wood previously granted a motion to allow the attorney for Jeffrey Weinhaus to withdraw from the felony case.
Weinhaus, 46, a longtime anti-law enforcement Internet blogger, is charged with multiple felony counts in the Sept. 11, 2012, armed confrontation at a service station south of St. Clair and currently remains in the Franklin County Jail on a $50,000 cash-only bond.
At an evidentiary hearing Thursday morning, Weinhaus, acting as his own attorney, appealed for Judge Wood to change the bond to a cash or surety bond which would allow him to pay a bondsman to post bail for him.
Judge Wood did not indicate when he would rule on Weinhaus’ motion, according to Prosecuting Attorney Bob Parks.
Parks requested the evidentiary hearing earlier this month after Weinhaus filed the motion for amending his bond.
During the hearing, Parks said he played an Internet video blog posting by Weinhaus in which he allegedly made veiled threats against Crawford County officials. He also played an audio tape Weinhaus recorded during the Sept. 11 incident in which he was wounded by two patrol investigators who were attempting to arrest him on felony and misdemeanor charges.
The investigators allege that they fired after Weinhaus refused to get on the ground and started reaching for a handgun that was in a holster.
Weinhaus claims that the investigators lied to him to get him to go to the MFA Station on the pretext that they were returning his computers that were seized earlier. He said that they shot him at point blank range “without warning” within 20 seconds after he got out of his car, according to a letter Weinhaus sent to The Missourian from the county jail.
Weinhaus has stated that he was shot four times. The highway patrol reported initially that he was struck by three bullets fired by the officers.
One of the original felony charges — tampering with a judicial officer — was for allegedly making threats against a circuit judge in Crawford County. Another was for possession of morphine along with a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession. Troopers said they seized the drugs when they went to execute a search warrant at Weinhaus’ home south of St. Clair as part of the initial investigation.
After the Sept. 11 confrontation, a Franklin County grand jury issued indictments charging Weinhaus with an additional two counts each of attempted assault on a law enforcement officer and armed criminal action and one count of resisting arrest.
Parks said Judge Wood on Thursday also approved a request from Weinhaus to issue a gag order based in part because of coverage of the case by The Missourian. The order applies only to comments made outside of the courtroom.
For now, Weinhaus still is scheduled to stand trial in April. Judge Wood scheduled a three-day trial from April 30 through May 2.
