Indecent behavior charges against a Lake Charles man that were dropped last year due to untimely prosecution have been reset by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal.

Deismond Derral Simmons, 30, is accused of committing the sexual crime against a 15-year-old on Dec. 6, 2018. He was charged with the crime on Feb. 5, 2019.

On Sept. 3, 2021, Simmons filed a motion to quash the charge, claiming the state failed to timely commence trial. That motion to quash was granted the following month.

In its appeal of that motion, the state alleges the district court committed legal error in granting Simmons’ motion without considering the time period for commencing trial was interrupted by emergency orders issued because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of Hurricane Laura’s destruction to the region.

It was “outside the control of the state that it was impossible to proceed to jury trial against Mr. Simmons,” the state wrote in its appeal.

The state argued the court closures due to COVID-19 and Hurricane Laura should be treated as “interruptions” to the prescriptive period for commencing trial, causing the time period for commencing trial to start anew.

The state said the 79-day time period of the jury trial moratorium constituted a suspension that should be added to the Aug. 31, 2021, expiration date calculated by the defense counsel. Thus, the state said it had until Nov. 18, 2021, to commence trial.

Simmons argued both in the trial court and in his response brief that the suspended time period applied only to those cases that had jury trials scheduled to commence during the moratorium period.

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeal ultimately ruled that while no trial was scheduled in the case at or near the time of the court closure due to Hurricane Laura, a pre-trial conference was scheduled for Sept. 22, 2020. “Thus, activity was taking place in defendant’s case,” the judges ruled. “Accordingly, we find the two-year prescriptive period in the present case was interrupted on Aug. 27, 2020, by the extended court closure due to Hurricane Laura.”

The court also ruled Gov. John Bel Edwards’ emergency proclamations closing courts during the pandemic suspended the time period to commence Simmons’ trial by 90 days.