Ex-Hartford officer given probation

Friday, November 9, 2012

A former Hartford police officer was sentenced to one year probation after a Sebastian County Circuit Court jury in Greenwood convicted him of abuse of public trust.

After taking 5 1/2 hours to convict Jonathan Brassfield of the felony charge, the jury took about 30 minutes to return with a sentencing recommendation. Circuit Judge Mike Fitzhugh accepted the jury’s sentence recommendation, ending the three day trial.

Brassfield could have been sentenced to up to six years in prison and fined up to $10,000 for the conviction.

“We greatly appreciate the jury’s attentiveness,” Brassfield’s attorney James Robb of Fort Smith said Thursday. “And while we certainly respect their opinion, Mr. Brassfield continues to adamantly maintain his innocence.”

Robb said no decision had been made on whether his client will file an appeal in the case.

Deputy prosecutor Aaron Jennen said Thursday he argued to jurors that a fine was too light a sentence and that mercy should be reserved for someone who admits what he has done.

Brassfield, 26, was accused of persuading a woman in his custody to give him oral sex as a favor for not to taking her to jail or to Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith for a mental evaluation on Oct. 24, 2011.

According to testimony, Brassfield and another officer had been called to the woman’s home by her father because she was screaming and overturning furnitureafter she had taken methamphetamine.

Brassfield was instructed to drive the woman to Fort Smith for the mental evaluation. However, according to testimony, the woman did not want to go to the hospital. Instead, the two talked in Brassfield’s patrol car for about an hour about the woman straightening out her life.

As he drove her back to Hartford in south Sebastian County, the state contended, Brassfield pulled off the road, reminded the woman of the favors he had done for her and asked for a favor in return.

Jennen told jurors in his closing argument that the woman complied with the request for oral sex because she feared being taken to jail, back to the hospital or, possibly, having her child taken from her.

Fitzhugh defined abuse of public trust as a public servant soliciting or accepting a benefit as compensation for, among other things, exercising a discretion in favor of another person.

In his closing argument, Jennen called Brassfield a predator who took advantage of the woman’s debilitated condition. The woman was addicted to methamphetamine and had been mixing the drug with other medication, he said.

Robb told jurors in his closing argument that Brassfield did not have time to stop on the way to Hartford and have oral sex. He said 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.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 11/09/2012