News
Sexual Battery Case Involving Former Echoing Meadows Employee Set For Trial
By: Susan Tebben | The Athens Messenger
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A Millfield man facing sexual charges involving a female patient at Echoing Meadows residential facility had his case set for trial on Tuesday.
Travis Keirns, 21, of Keirns Road, is scheduled to see trial on June 12 with a final pre-trial on April 25. The schedule was set Tuesday in Athens County Common Pleas Court.
The former Echoing Meadows employee is charged with sexual battery, a third-degree felony, in relation to a woman under his care at the residential facility, which houses patients with developmental disabilities.
He previously pleaded not guilty to the indictment in November. An Athens County grand jury indicted Keirns on Oct. 28 of allegedly committing sexual battery on a 22-year-old for whom he was a caretaker at Echoing Meadows in Athens, according to previous Messenger reporting.
“It was sexual assault because of the relationship he had as her caregiver,” said Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn after Keirns’ arraignment. “It was a one-time deal.”
Blackburn would not comment on any other details of the case.
Keirns was released on a $15,000 bond on the condition that he stay away from the woman.
According to agency information, Echoing Meadows, located on West Union Street, is “an assisted-living facility grounded in a Christian philosophy of balanced physical, mental, spiritual and social living.”