PB man gets suspended sentence in sex abuse case

VAN BUREN — A Poplar Bluff man preempted his upcoming trial by pleading guilty last week to a sex-related misdemeanor involving a woman who lived at one of his residential care facilities.

Mark Keeney was supposed to stand trial Oct. 6 and 7 before Senior Judge John Bloodworth in Carter County on the classified felonies of first-degree sodomy and first-degree rape.

Instead, the 64-year-old entered an Alford plea Thursday to the Class A misdemeanor of second-degree sexual abuse.

An Alford plea means that, based on the evidence the state was going to present at the trial, there was a great likelihood of conviction. It reportedly still is considered a guilty plea.

Keeney, according to Casenet, “advises there would be” sufficient evidence for him to be found guilty, and he made a statement “taking his responsibility.”

After accepting his plea, Bloodworth sentenced Keeney, per the plea memorandum, to 330 days in jail, with suspended execution of his sentence, and placed him on two years’ supervised probation.

Keeney entered his plea after Carter County Prosecuting Attorney Hannah Pender recently filed an amended information with the court.

It alleged on March 21, 2015, Keeney for the “purpose of arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of (himself) had sexual contact” with the victim without her consent.

According to earlier reports, Keeney had been accused of sexually assaulting a woman who lacked the mental capacity to give her consent.

In earlier court proceedings, the woman testified she had resided at Keeney’s facilities, Maple Crest Residential Care and Keeney Country Homes Residential Care, both in Butler County.

On March 21, 2015, she said, Keeney took her and another woman, who also was a facility resident, to a motel, identified as the Leerjak Travel Center and Inn, at Ellsinore.

While at the hotel, the woman testified she and Keeney had sexual, as well as oral, intercourse.

The woman further testified she was scared of Keeney because “he had the power to put me back in a lock-down facility.”

Keeney, according to officers, denied “all sexual intercourse.”

Maple Crest Residential Care is no longer owned by Keeney, and it is believed Keeney Country Homes is no longer in business.