Woolery attends pretrial hearing for 6 counts of sexual assault of a child

Joshua Woolery was in Cheyenne County District Court on Thursday for pretrial motions for a case involving sexual assault of a minor.

Woolery, 26, of Sidney, was arrested in October 2015 and charged with six felony charges relating to the alleged sexual assault of a minor between the ages of 12 and 16. Last fall, he pleaded not guilty to two charges of first-degree sexual assault of a child, three charges of third-degree sexual assault of a child and one charge of attempted first-degree sexual assault of a child.

On Thursday, Woolery was present in court with his court-appointed attorney, Michael Samuelson.

The hearing Thursday was set for pretrial motions. According to Cheyenne County Attorney Paul Schaub, two motions were contested.

The first motion contested, "Allows them to start to get evidence of illegal activity to help prove the propensity to commit this type of crime," Schaub said. In this case the motion allows the review of the evidence submitted to the court to help prosecute the case. The second motion contested requires the state to show that statements made by the defendant were made voluntarily and with cohesion.

Cheyenne County District Court Judge Derek Weimer will look over the recordings submitted for evidence to the court and is scheduled to make his decision early next week.

Woolery is currently being held in Cheyenne County Jail on a $500,000 bond. On Dec. 8, Woolery asked for the bond to be cut in half, but the court denied that request.

The case first came to court on Oct. 5 when Woolery was arraigned. In court on Oct. 26, Curtis Hofrock, a Sidney Police Department sergeant, told the court that on Oct. 2, a member of the teen's family contacted him at the police station and told him "something bad was happening." After talking with the family and interviewing the teen, police made contact with Woolery.

Sidney Police Lt. Keith Andrew said Oct. 26 that Woolery told him he had three separate sexual encounters with the teen and described the events.

During cross examination, Samuelson asked the lieutenant how many times his client had been interviewed. Andrew said police spoke briefly to the defendant at his residence and then interviewed him at the police station.

County Court Judge Randin Roland said Oct. 26 based on the totality of evidence, all six charges would be bound over to Cheyenne County District Court.