CONWAY -- A judge set a September trial for a Conway physician charged with rape and sexual assault of patients.
The trial in Faulkner County Circuit Court for Robert Rook, 61, is scheduled for Sept. 5 through Sept. 14.
Judge Charles Clawson Jr. on Friday set pretrial hearings for May 12 and Aug. 11.
Clawson set the dates after a hearing in which special prosecutor D. Jason Barrett and defense attorney Patrick Benca questioned a Conway police detective about search warrants in the case. Online court records show that one search warrant was obtained June 3, the same day Rook was arrested. A second search warrant was obtained June 20.
Benca contends that Rook's arrest was illegal and was done "as a pretext for an investigation."
Rook is charged with 10 counts of rape, 10 counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of third-degree sexual assault involving 13 women. He originally was charged with three counts each of rape and sexual assault, involving two of the 13 women.
Online court records show that the June 3 warrant was executed at 8:37 a.m. and completed at 8:57 a.m. The only thing listed under inventory obtained with that warrant was the medical records for one of Rook's accusers.
A bench warrant for Rook's arrest was dated June 2, online records show.
According to published reports at the time, Rook was booked into the county jail shortly before noon June 3. The exact time he entered the jail or was taken into custody could have been earlier, and that time was unavailable Friday evening.
Court records relating to the June 20 warrant list more inventory: 29 pages of documents from storage or the personal office of Rook. Listed were patient records for nine people and information relating to the Arkansas State Medical Board. Police also took a video of the office's interior.
Friday's hearing resulted from a motion Benca filed saying there was no probable cause to arrest Rook and that the police failed to get "a proper search warrant to conduct their search and the consent to search in this case was done after the fact." As a result, he contended, "all evidence and statements obtained as a consequence of that arrest must be suppressed."
After detective Melissa Smith testified Friday, neither Barrett nor Benca called any other witnesses. Clawson asked Benca to file a brief explaining his arguments within 30 days. Barrett will have 15 days to respond.
State Desk on 01/21/2017