A former Jacksonville police officer was sentenced to a year of probation Friday for manhandling a teenager at gunpoint during an off-duty road-rage altercation in Little Rock.
Juan Francisco Matus-Rios, who turns 43 today, was fired from the Jacksonville department after the September 2014 encounter with a pickup full of teenagers he stopped at gunpoint. He had been on the force about 14 months.
Matus-Rios was scheduled to stand trial next week on felony charges that could have sent him to prison for 18 years, but on Friday he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery for roughing up the driver, Tag Grace, then 17.
In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped felony charges of terroristic threatening and aggravated assault over accusations that he threatened Grace with his gun.
A second aggravated assault charge related to Grace's passenger Kyle Parham, who was also 17, was also dropped as part of the plea agreement negotiated by Matus-Rios' attorney, Bill James.
Matus-Rios also was fined $500, ordered to take an anger-management course and complete 30 hours of community service in the next six months.
His arrangement with prosecutors also requires that he give up his law enforcement certification and not possess a gun while on probation.
Deputy prosecutor Jill Kamps told Circuit Judge Barry Sims at Friday's plea hearing that the encounter between the man and boys began after someone in Grace's truck threw a beer bottle and hit Matus-Rios' truck.
Matus-Rios blocked the teens' truck with his own in front of Pulaski Academy to make them stop and he pulled Grace, now 19, out of the car at gunpoint, she said.
Matus-Rios, who was wearing his badge around his neck, apologized and let the teens go after they denied throwing the bottle, according to testimony from a previous hearing. Court records show there were two girls in the truck as well, twin sisters Molly and Meredith Overton, who were 16 at the time.
Kamps told the judge that Matus-Rios had hit Grace, which the defendant denied, prompting the judge to say he would not accept the plea deal and that the case would go to trial.
But after consulting with his lawyer, Matus-Rios agreed that he had knocked the boy down, which also qualifies as misdemeanor battery, and the judge accepted the plea.
"I pulled him down, your honor," the defendant said.
He was also ordered to stay away from the teens and their families.
Court filings show that, ahead of the trial, Matus-Rios had been attempting to assert that as a police officer he was immune from prosecution on the aggravated-assault charges.
According to a motion to dismiss filed on Thursday, Matus-Rios argued that since the aggravated-assault statute, Arkansas Code 5-13-204, specifically exempts law officers who are acting within the scope of duty, those charges should be thrown out.
State law gives law officers who see a felony crime or violent misdemeanor committed arrest authority even if they are outside their jurisdiction, the four-page filing states.
"Defendant witnessed multiple of violations of the law, which compelled him to act as a law enforcement officer," the motion states. "Although not exhaustive, defendant witnessed criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, driving while intoxicated and aggravated assault due to intentionally swerving the truck at defendant."
Metro on 01/30/2016