ST. CLAIR COUNTY — A Marion County judge will preside over the case of 55-year-old St. Clair County Circuit Judge Ron Duebbert, who is facing felony charges of intimidation and criminal sexual abuse, along with misdemeanor counts of solicitation of a sex act and battery.
Circuit Judge Michael McHaney, of Salem, was selected to hear the case.
McHaney serves in the Fourth Judicial Circuit, which covers Christian, Clay, Clinton, Effingham, Fayette, Jasper, Marion, Montgomery and Shelby counties.
Earlier this month, Duebbert was accused in charging documents of grabbing a client’s genitals when he was a lawyer and offering to reduce the man’s legal bill by $100 in exchange for sex.
At the time of the charge, St. Clair County Chief Judge Andrew Gleeson said a judge outside the five-county 20th Judicial Circuit would be brought in to hear the charges against Duebbert.
The State Appellate Prosecutor’s Office alleges that on Nov. 22, 2016, Duebbert “committed the offense of intimidation” against his client when he “communicated a threat to expose the victim to hatred, contempt or ridicule … to ensure that the victim would never tell anyone” that Duebbert allegedly offered to reduce his legal fee in return for oral sex.
The sex charge stated that Duebbert “knowingly committed an act of sexual conduct” in that he reached into the man’s shorts and “touched the victim’s penis through the victim’s underwear for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification.”
The misdemeanor counts allege that Duebbert committed battery in that he “made physical contact in an insulting or provoking nature” with the man and committed the offense of “solicitation of a sexual act,” by offering to “knock $100 off his legal bill if the man would perform an act of oral sex on the judge.”
Duebbert was ordered to appear in court Dec. 1 to answer the charges.
The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis may still bring charges of obstructing justice against Duebbert in connection with a December shooting death of a Belleville man allegedly killed by Deubbert’s former roommate. Those charges have not been filed.