Deal reached in case of illegal hug

A Corbin man accused of sexual abuse for hugging a local store clerk in December pleaded guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct Tuesday and will serve no jail time.
Forty-five-year-old Ricky Allen Baker was arrested Dec. 7 after he entered Tadpoles and Lillies, a childrens’ clothing store on Main Street in Corbin, chatted with a 22-year-old female clerk for some time, then asked her to give him a hug.
She obliged, and Baker left. He was captured by police a short time later after a worker at the store reported the incident.
Williamsburg attorney Paul Croley, who represented Baker in court Tuesday, asked Whitley District Judge Cathy Prewitt for a hearing on a motion to dismiss the case. Police had no probable cause to arrest Baker, he contended, because the alleged victim agreed to the hug.
Before the hearing was scheduled to begin, Croley and Assistant County Attorney Gary Brittain reached a plea bargain. Baker agreed to a probated 30-day jail sentence and is forbidden to have any contact with the victim or to enter Tadpoles and Lillies.
“I think it was a good resolution,” Croley said. “I’ve never seen a case quite like it. Our position is that she consented to it. It was a misunderstanding, but I think all parties involved have learned a good lesson here.”
The victim, 22-year-old Heather Cornett, said she agreed to hug Baker when he asked because of his odd behavior and because she feared for her life.
“I thought he was there to kill me and I figured if I didn’t hug him, he would kill me,” she said. “He kept his hand in his pocket and it looked like he had something stuffed in his jacket. I thought it was kind of odd. I thought he was concealing a knife or something.”
Cornett said she had a previous uncomfortable encounter with Baker weeks earlier, but never reported it to police.
“I was out front on break and he started yelling at me because I didn’t say ‘hi’ to him,” she said. “I didn’t’ think he would come back. I didn’t think he would come in the store because it’s a childrens’ clothing store. I just don’t want him nowhere near me or where I work.”
Surveillance cameras in the store captured the hug on videotape, but prosecutors never played it in court.
“He thought, in his mind, that it was OK to give her a hug … that he had her permission,” Croley said. “She apparently felt otherwise. There was some confusion. I think the agreement is fair.”