Abuse-of-trust case given to jury

Ex-Hartford officer accused of making deal for oral sex

— A Sebastian County Circuit jury was deliberating Wednesday evening whether a former Hartford police officer had oral sex with a woman last year in return for not taking her to jail or to the hospital for a mental evaluation.

Jonathan Brassfield, 26, was on trial charged with abuse of public trust, a felony Circuit Judge Mike Fitzhugh defined as a public servant soliciting or accepting a benefit as compensation for, among other things, exercising a discretion in favor of another person.

Brassfield took the witness stand as the last witness in the three-day trial and denied having oral sex with the woman on Oct. 24, 2011.

Deputy prosecutor Aaron Jennen described Brassfield in closing arguments as a predator who took advantage of the woman’s debilitated conditionand persuaded her to perform oral sex on him. The woman was addicted to methamphetamine and had been mixing the drug with other medication, he said.

According to testimony and closing arguments, Brassfield went to the woman’s Hartford home where he found her screaming at her father and overturning furniture as she was coming down from a methamphetamine high.

Brassfield calmed the situation, Jennen said, but was called back to the home later that day, after which another officer instructed him to drive the woman to Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith for a mental evaluation.

When they arrived later that afternoon , the woman said she did not want to go into the hospital. Instead, the two sat in the patrol car and talked for an hour about her straightening out her life.

Brassfield then drove the woman back to Hartford, Jennen said, but pulled off the highway along the way, told the woman that he had done her a favor by not taking her to jail or to the hospital and he wanted a favor in return.

Jennen said the woman feared being arrested, being taken to the hospital and possibly losing her child, so she complied with his request for oral sex.

Brassfield’s attorney, James Robb of Fort Smith, told jurors that sheriff dispatch records showed it took Brassfield about 30 minutes to drive from Fort Smith back to Hartford that night, the same amount of time deputies took when they timed the trip later.

He said it was impossible for Brassfield to stop along the way and have oral sex with the woman.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday the jury had been in deliberation for about two hours.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 14 on 11/08/2012

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