Trial begins today for man arrested for assaulting officer
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, December 14, 2004
The trial of a North Carolina man, accused of pulling a gun on a Lawrence County Sheriff's deputy is scheduled to begin today in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court.
Paul Brown, 27, of Apex, N. C., is facing charges of second-degree felony assault on a peace officer, fourth-degree carrying a concealed weapon and a misdemeanor falsification.
Brown was arrested in August in Burlington. According to a sheriff's office report, deputy Wesley Collins was investigating a car parked late at night at the Burlington Commons Park when the incident occurred. Collins stated when he ran the license number to determine who the car belonged to and why it was parked at the Commons, he found the plates on the car actually belonged on another vehicle. When Collins set out on foot to find the driver of the car, Brown allegedly jumped from behind a tree and began walking quickly away from Collins, and refused to stop when ordered to do so several times.
When Collins apprehended him, Brown allegedly pulled a .38 revolver, but the gun got caught on his pocket as Brown tried to pull it out of his pants.
He also allegedly gave a fictitious name to Collins and deputy Steve Cartmel when they asked him his name. When his fingerprints were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation fingerprint center in Clarksburg, W.Va. deputies learned who their prisoner was and that he also had drug convictions in West Virginia and North Carolina.