By Conrad Dudderar
Associate Editor
A Yukon felon will serve a 15-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to kidnapping a female employee at a Yukon Main Street restaurant.
Cecil Q. Roberson, 48, entered the negotiated plea at a Sept. 19th hearing in Canadian County District Court.
Roberson, who appeared with his attorney Zac Ramsey, had originally been charged nearly three years ago with sexual battery in this case.
That charge was amended to kidnapping, according to the court minute.
Canadian County District Judge Paul Hesse accepted Roberson’s plea and found him guilty of the felony offense.
Pursuant to a plea agreement between prosecutors and the defense, Robertson was sentenced to 15 years in state Department of Corrections’ custody – all suspended.
The defendant will be supervised by the District Attorney’s Office while on probation. He was ordered to pay a $50 fine and $50 victim’s compensation assessment.
Robertson was charged in October 2020 after Yukon Police investigated a Sept. 28th crime reported at 10 W Main.
Canadian County prosecutors alleged Roberson violated state law by “intentionally grabbing the waist” of the victim and embracing her without her consent.
In his signed guilty plea, Roberson wrote that he confined the victim “without lawful authority (with) the intent to cause her to be confined against her will by blocking her exit against a dishwashing station.”
Allegations against Roberson were detailed in an arrest warrant affidavit filed by Yukon Police Det. Dave Carroll.
The distraught female victim told officer Jeff Hill about an assault that occurred about 3:45 p.m. Sept. 28, 2020, when Roberson pinned her against the rear exterior wall of the restaurant.
The victim “appeared extremely shaken” when Det. Carroll spoke with her by phone the next day.
The detective received a video from inside the restaurant that showed Roberson wrapping both arms around the victim’s waist as she leaned away from him.
‘DIDN’T MEAN TO HURT HER’
Roberson called Yukon Police and told dispatchers he had “fooled around with his friend” and had done “some inappropriate things with her” but “didn’t mean to hurt her,” Det. Carroll wrote in his affidavit.
Roberson called the detective’s office Sept. 30 saying he was sorry but wouldn’t go into details about what happened, according to the court document.
The defendant acknowledged his actions caused the female victim emotional pain.
Roberson has previous felony convictions in Oklahoma County District Court for domestic assault and battery, driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and actual physical control of motor vehicle.
