For the last 11 years, Howard Dotson Jr. 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.

Howard Dotson Jr., 60, had been indicted Jan. 22, 1997 on 56 counts of rape, 20 counts of

first-degree sexual assault, and 20 counts of third-degree sexual assault.

For Captain George Spangler of the West Virginia State Police, Howard Dotson has been on his mind for 11 years. The case was Spangler’s when he was a young trooper and he was determined to see the case prosecuted.

“We got him arrested and into court,” Spangler said. “He kept firing his attorneys, and that

postponed the trial several times.”

His trial had been postponed four times, from March 11, 1997, to July 15, 1997, then Dec. 2, 1997.

Finally, when Dotson failed to appear at the March 31, 2008 trial date, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

“When the trial date came up, Dotson didn’t appear. His attorney got the trial postponed, as I remember. The case was continued several times, I’m not sure how many, but finally the judge said ‘no more,’” Spangler said.

When they finally realized Dotson had fled the state, Spangler was determined to catch the man.

“Over the years we tracked him to Indiana and Ohio, but never found him,” the trooper said. “A friend of the family told us that he was even seen in Boone County a number of times, but we were never lucky enough to catch up with him.”

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 and under the age of 10.

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.

However it happened, Spangler is glad the man was captured. “While some of his victims don’t want to have any more to do with the case, there are a few who do. We keep in touch, and I’m sure they will be glad to know Howard is in jail," Spangler said.

Spangler said he has even talked with Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Sam Hall in the last few weeks regarding the case. "Whenever I would get a tip, I’d touch base with the prosecutor. We never forgot about this guy all those years he was running loose."

Spangler said the hearing this week in a Grand Junction Colorado court is just a formality. "He can waive extradition, and we will just fly out and pick him up. If he doesn’t, then we will just get a governor’s warrant and present it to the court out there. One way or another, now that he’s caught, we will get him into a West Virginia court."

Coal Valley News staff writer Lawrence Keeney

contributed to this report.