Aaron Spencer spared of murder charges following police error after shooting teen daughter's alleged rapist
Warning: This article contains discussion of child abuse and sexual assault, which some readers may find distressing.
A man who fatally shot his 13-year-old daughter's alleged rapist has been cleared of murder charges in a gripping case.
Aaron Spencer appeared in court yesterday (4 June) after pleading not guilty to a second-degree murder charge following the death of Michael Fosler.
Fosler died in October 2024, aged 67, after being veered off the highway by Spencer.
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Following his arrest, Arkansas dad Spencer claimed he'd acted in the defence of his teenage daughter, who'd allegedly been sexually assaulted by Fosler between June and July 2024.
Fosler was charged with dozens of sex crimes against Spencer's 13-year-old that same September, after which he was released on bond.
Days after police released him, Fosler allegedly contacted the child in the middle of the night.
Waking up to realise she was missing, Spencer, who won the Republican nomination for sheriff while awaiting trial, tracked down his daughter, who was sitting in the passenger seat of Fosler's car.
The father then drove Fosler off the road, exited his car, and shot at him.
Spencer removed his daughter from Fosler's vehicle, placed her into his own car, reloaded his gun and called 911, reporting to have shot Fosler.
A trial was expected to unfold in the coming weeks after prosecutors alleged Spencer had planned the killing, citing that he could have called the authorities while pursuing Fosler as evidence for this.
In a shocking twist, however, Special Circuit Court Judge Ralph Wilson Jr. made the decision to dismiss the case against Spencer this week.
The move came after the discovery that law enforcement had accidentally misplaced a dash camera memory card that had footage of the shooting.
The team found back in April that a Lonoke County Sheriff's Office detective had lost the video evidence.
Judge Wilson described his decision as an 'extraordinary and extreme remedy' before adding: "However, based on the totality of the circumstances and the unique, specific, and particular facts and circumstances of this case, the court finds that conduct by law enforcement was so egregious that dismissal of this case is warranted."
In court documents obtained by PEOPLE, the defence argued that the detective who didn't document the existence of the memory card aligns with an argument referred to as 'bad faith'.
The files read of the officer: "1) efforts to conceal the existence of exculpatory information, its contents, or its destruction; 2) failing to adhere to rules and professional obligations.
"3) deliberately omitting mention of evidence or omitting information from reports; and 4) failure to submit an item of evidence, denying its existence, failing to timely alert others to destruction of evidence, or misleading as to the circumstances."
Responding to the dismissal, Spencer's lawyer told the press: "No member of this family should ever again be forced to walk into a courtroom and relive this horror. This father should never have been charged for protecting his child."
Rhianna Benson