WESTMORELAND, Kan. — A Pottawatomie County Judge has denied a motion to reconsider charges against a 52-year-old St. Marys man initially charged with a host of sex crimes involving his children.
At a preliminary hearing Friday afternoon in Westmoreland, Judge Jeff Elder upheld his previous ruling to dismiss several charges against Peter Palmeri, due to the statute of limitations running out. Palmeri was charged in July with two counts of rape, six counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, three counts of aggravated criminal sodomy, one count of aggravated kidnapping and one count of furnishing alcohol to a minor. All but one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child were dismissed. The prosecution argued the preponderance of evidence submitted by one of the two victims, who didn’t know she was the victim of a crime until she was 19, outweighed the substantial competent evidence that would have been necessary to implicate Palmeri.
Pottawatomie County Attorney Sherri Schuck explained the prosecution’s next step, which includes an appeal to the Kansas Court of Appeals.
Schuck says this allows the state to proceed without delay on the remaining count against Palmeri.
Jury trial dates are being reserved for December 17 through December 20.
Palmeri was initially charged with two counts of rape, six counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, three counts of aggravated criminal sodomy, one count of kidnapping and one count of furnishing alcohol to a minor.
He remains in Pottawatomie County Jail on a $100,000 bond.
