Defendant pleads guilty to molesting three girls

Jeff Lehr, The Joplin Globe, Mo.
·1 min read

Mar. 9—A 34-year-old Joplin man pleaded guilty Monday to sexually molesting three girls in 2018 and 2019.

Assistant Prosecutor Kimberly Fisher said Ruben R. Rossel Jr. entered an open plea of guilty to three felony counts of child molestation. Circuit Judge Gayle Crane ordered a sentencing assessment of Rossel and set a sentencing hearing May 3.

Two of the convictions are for Class B felony counts carrying from five to 15 years in prison. They involve acts committed with an 8-year-old girl in 2018 and an 11-year-old girl in 2018 and 2019.

The third count involves an act perpetrated on a 13-year-old girl in 2018 and is a Class C felony carrying up to 10 years in prison.

Two additional counts of statutory sodomy and child molestation that Rossel was facing with respect to the youngest girl will be dismissed at sentencing, Fisher said.

Probable-cause affidavits filed in the case state Rossel touched all of the girls inappropriately.

Jeff Lehr is a reporter for The Joplin Globe.