Another pretrial hearing is expected, possibly within the next two weeks, as the Beth Rist case heads to its scheduled court date of Feb. 26.

Rist, a former police officer with the Ironton City Police, was indicted in November by a Lawrence County Grand Jury on one count of tampering with evidence in connection with a traffic stop in late summer.

In a pretrial hearing Thursday morning, Meigs County Common Pleas Judge Fred W. Crow III, who has been assigned to the case, heard a motion filed by Rist’s attorney, Warren Morford, asking that the charges be dropped.

Morford based his motion on the contention that what Rist did was not a crime and if it were a crime, the state could not prove it.

Rist was fired in October after city officials said that she violated police department policy. They claim Rist pulled over a woman who had run a stop sign. It was determined that the woman had no insurance, was driving under a suspension because she hadn’t insurance and had expired tags.

When a family member of the driver arrived at the scene, Rist is alleged to have indicated that she would give the family member the option of taking the citation herself. The relative did so.

A few weeks later, the relative appeared in Ironton Municipal Court and was told that she would lose her driver’s license because there was no insurance on the vehicle. At that time the family member contacted Rist for help.

City officials have contended that Rist threatened the woman. Rist has countered that the relative threatened her.

At Thursday’s hearing Crow told Morford and Prosecutor J. B. Collier that the second part of that motion would be overruled because to uphold it there would have to be a trial.

The next hearing will concern a motion by Collier to exclude from the trial the pretrial negotiations between the prosecutor’s office and Rist.

Morford stated to Crow that the prosecutor had said that he would not indict Rist if she dropped her grievance against the city for her firing and if she agreed not to sue the city and the police. Rist refused those offers twice, Morford said.

“Within less than an hour, she was indicted,” Morford said. “That is why she was indicted. She refused to back down.”

Collier responded that “I don’t indict. The grand jury indicts based on the evidence. I was trying to resolve this case and help Ms. Rist. This is something a prosecutor has the discretion to do.”

Rist attended Thursday’s hearing, but had no comment for the press.