Ricky and Dena

Davis' niece was cut above the eye in the accident. She was treated at a hospital for that wound and underwent surgery for damage done by the sexual assault.

The violation of the child prompted further scrutiny of the decision to allow Davis and Riley to leave their home on May 17 while authorities sought a search warrant. It left the couple free to molest the niece.

The top men of two law enforcement agencies involved defensively insisted to the local media that their departments did the right thing.

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing," said Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh. "Either the public is going to understand it or they are not going to understand it. There's not a whole lot I can do about it at this point in time. We have to do our job right and not haphazardly."

"You can spin the facts any way you want," said Independence Police Chief Fred Mills. "But we had no probable cause to arrest them. What you need for an arrest warrant is a lot more than you need for a search warrant."