Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties

Charge dropped against Gile man, trial date moved

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Hurley — Although he will have to wait longer to stand trial on his charges, a Gile man had one of the felonies against him dismissed at a hearing Wednesday.

Phillip “Ruby” Laguna, 70, is charged with two counts of first degree child sexual assault-contact with a child under 13 and physical abuse of a child-intentionally causing physical harm.

Judge Kevin Klein, who is hearing the case, granted a defense motion to dismiss one count of felony intimidation of a victim.

“We’ve also filed a motion to dismiss Count 3 of the information … based on a statute of limitations defense,” Laguna’s attorney, Daniel Snyder, said in court.

The alleged acts that served as the basis for the dismissed charge happened in March 2011 or March 2012, according to Snyder’s written motion, while the criminal complaint against Laguna was filed in June 2018.

State law “provides that prosecution for a felony must commence within six years after the commission of the alleged offense,” the motion reads.

The other charges are exempted from the six-year statute of limitations under state law.

Along with the dismissal of the charge, the parties agreed that the trial on the remaining charges will need to be delayed. It had been scheduled for December 11-13, according to online court records.

The delay is needed to allow for another motion hearing, which the parties agreed would take several hours as evidence and testimony would need to be presented.

No new trial date was set Wednesday.

The charges against Laguna stem from a pair of incidents — in March 2011 or 2012 and late 2014 — according to the criminal complaint in the case. During a past court appearance, Laguna repeatedly denied the charges against him.