Man who punched deputy pleads, apologizes

By Teresa Moore | The Tribune

Published Thursday, March 12, 2009

He said he was sorry.

A Crown City man accused of punching a Lawrence County Sheriff’s deputy during a scuffle at his residence late last year pleaded guilty to the two charges against him Wednesday in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court and then he apologized for what he had done.

Marvin Ray Ferguson, 49, of 16150 State Route 7, was arrested Dec. 2, 2008, and charged with felony assault on a peace officer and misdemeanor resisting arrest. Judge Charles Cooper sentenced him to 30 days home confinement with electronic monitoring, four years community controlled sanctions under intensive supervised probation (CCS/ISP).

His attorney, Michael Gleichauf, explained that while Ferguson had had run-ins with the law as a young man, in the last decade-and-a-half, he had cleaned up his act and had led a “pretty much crime-free life.” But on Dec. 2, Ferguson’s son, Waylon, became involved in an altercation with another young man and when Waylon was arrested, Marvin Ferguson thought the deputy used excessive force. Gleichauf conceded that Marvin Ferguson “is not making any excuses for what he did.”

Ferguson told Cooper, “I’d like to apologize to Mr. Rood and the rest of the sheriff’s office. I’d like to tell them I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go against the law. I’ve never done nothing like this against the law. I feel sorry where I hit him.”

Waylon Ferguson, 27, of 16178 State Route 7, Crown City, was charged with complicity to felonious assault and resisting arrest in connection with that incident. The case against him is pending in common pleas court.

Also Wednesday, Randi Carr, 19, of Portsmouth, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft, one a felony and the other a misdemeanor. She will be sentenced March 25 after a case against her in Scioto County is resolved.

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