Prosecutors drop charges against officer.Byline: Winston Ross The Register-Guard COQUILLE co·quille n. A scallop-shaped dish or a scallop shell in which various seafood dishes are browned and served. [French, from Latin conch - Coos County Coos County is the name of two counties in the United States:
Sgt. Arthur Dornath was placed on paid administrative leave in October along with his supervisor, Lt. Ron Setelia. The state did not file charges against Setelia. Dornath was accused of felony criminal mistreatment mis·treat tr.v. mis·treat·ed, mis·treat·ing, mis·treats To treat roughly or wrongly. See Synonyms at abuse. mis·treat for injuring Jeremy Hardesty. Three jail employees witnessed the incident, according to the indictment. Hardesty was arrested on burglary charges in April 2003, according to court records, and was apparently awaiting trial on those charges when the incident occurred in May. The burglary charges were dropped, but the 22-year-old was convicted May 28 of criminal trespass and misdemeanor theft and sentenced to probation. Hardesty's mother, Vicky Hardesty of Murietta, Calif., said in October that she was told by a jail mental health counselor A mental health counselor is a professional who provides counseling to individuals, couples, families, groups, or larger systems. A mental health counselor may also have training in educational and vocational counseling (MacCluskie & Ingersoll 2001). that her son had been "roughed up," and that her ex-husband, who saw Hardesty after he was released from jail, described him as "black and blue." She said Friday that she talked by telephone to her son last week in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and that he wasn't "lucid." He has since left New York, she said. "I'm not happy about it," Hardesty said of the dismissed charges. "They had three witnesses, didn't they?" But Dornath's Roseburg attorney, David Terry, said the reasons Chief Deputy District Attorney Paul Frasier gave for dropping the charges are dubious. "The day before, (Frasier) said, `I'll dismiss this case if you guys will give us a covenant not to sue COVENANT NOT TO SUE. This is a covenant entered into by a party who had a cause of action at the time of making it, and by which he agrees not to sue the party liable to such action. 2. the county,' ' Terry recalled. "This whole case has been utter nonsense from the beginning." Hardesty "hates cops," Terry said, and jail staff members had to use physical force against him on five documented occasions, once to keep him from beating his head against the wall. Hardesty never filed a complaint, but a jail employee did - months after the alleged incident took place. As the county realized its case was falling apart, Frasier started offering reduced charges, all of which Dornath refused. He intends to sue the county for wrongful termination wrongful termination n. a right of an employee to sue his/her employer for damages (loss of wage and "fringe" benefits, and, if against "public policy," for punitive damages). . Dornath was fired in November, Terry said. "He lost everything," Terry said. "This ends a guy's career. It robs him of his benefits. He's been there 16 years.' Frasier couldn't be reached for comment Friday, but District Attorney Paul Burgett dismissed Terry's statements as "grandstanding to the press," and said the charges will be refiled if Hardesty can be located. "He's pipe-dreaming if he thinks we're afraid to prosecute," Burgett said. |
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