For the last 11 years, Howard Dotson has been a fugitive from justice.
That changed Monday after officers in Colorado discovered that the man they suspected of drunken driving was wanted in West Virginia on 96 counts of sexual assault.
The 11-year-old warrant was sworn out in Boone County on March 31, 1998, after Dotson failed to appear in court that same day.
Dotson had been indicted January 22, 1997 on 56 counts of rape, 20 counts of first-degree sexual assault, and 20 counts of third-degree sexual assault.
His trial had been postponed four times, from March 11, 1997, to July 15, 1997, then December 2, 1997. Finally, when Dotson failed to appear at the March 31, 2008 trial date, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Now, more than 11 years after a grand jury indictment, Dotson is facing extradition back to the state of West Virginia to stand trial for charges of allegedly sexually assaulting four female victims.
The indictments allege sexual abuse by Dotson periodically from 1971 until 1997. The indictments also indicate that these crimes allegedly took place while the victims were under the age of 16-years-old, and under the age of 10-years-old.
According to the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office, the process to extradite Dotson from Colorado to West Virginia has already been set in motion.
“We’re just waiting for the charges against Dotson in Colorado to be finished up,” a source in the Prosecutor’s Office said.
Dotson was arrested in Colorado, by the Colorado State Patrol on Monday.
Dotson is currently being held at the Mesa County Detention Center on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, cruelty toward a child, a traffic offense, and fraudulent impersonation, according to the online booking record at the Mesa County Sheriff's Office.
The Coal Valley News has requested a copy of the arrest report from the Colorado State Patrol, and more details will be reported in next week’s print edition.
Contact Joanie Newman at jnewman@coalvalleynews.com or call 304-369-1165.
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