Man pleads guilty to assaulting officer

Published 11:07 am Thursday, June 24, 2010

A man who pleaded guilty to assaulting a police officer was sentenced to four years of community controlled sanctions Wednesday morning.

Johnny L. Browning, 47, of 516 Hecla Street Apt. 1 in Ironton, pleaded guilty in Lawrence County Common Pleas to a bill of information that he assaulted a police officer.

He was also charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. In addition to four years of community-controlled sanctions, Judge Scott Bowling also sentenced Browning to complete a program at the Septa Correctional Facility in Nelsonville.

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Browning’s attorney, Warren Morford, said his client was having emotional issues at the time of the incident and that the man had stopped taking his medication for bipolar disorder.

“I believed he’s apologized to the officer involved and he would do so again today,” Morford said. “It’s just a shame that this happened.”

Browning apologized to the court.

“I’m very sorry for what happened,” he said. “I was off my meds and I had taken some alcohol that day.”

Also during Common Pleas Court Wednesday, a pretrial date has been set in the case of a man accused of domestic violence.

Clyde Stiltner, 36,of 5919 County Road 1 in South Point, pleaded not guilty to a charge of domestic violence, a fourth degree felony.

Stiltner’s victim was in the courtroom for the arraignment. The woman said she had twice asked for the charges to be dropped, to which Assistant Prosecutor Brigham Anderson replied that they would not be dropped.

Also in Common Pleas Court Wednesday, Nikki Lewis, 23, of 5350 County Road 15 in South Point, was arraigned on one drug trafficking charge, a fourth degree felony. Lewis pleaded not guilty to the charge. Bowling set a pretrial date for Wednesday.

Randy Jackson, 33, of 2418 South Fourth St. in Ironton, pleaded not guilty to one count of drug trafficking, a fourth degree felony.

A pretrial date for the case has been set for Wednesday.