Highland man sentenced to 1 year in prison

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A Highland man has been sentenced to a year in prison for attempted intimidation, charges stemming from a June incident that landed him in the county jail.

Joseph M. Scott, 48, was sentenced to 12 months in prison on Wednesday on two counts of fourth-degree felony attempted intimidation.

He pled guilty to the charges in November, and the recommendation from the state in that plea agreement was for community control.

On Wednesday Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss said he did not follow the agreement based in part on Scott’s past record, which includes multiple felony convictions, and that the defendant had violated his pretrial supervision.

As previously reported, Scott was arrested in June following a report that he was threatening a local family and that he “became belligerent” with law enforcement and remained so in transit to the jail and at the jail. It was additionally alleged in an affidavit that Scott made threatening comments and kicked at windows in the cruiser.

Scott was in the Highland County Common Pleas Courtroom in November, a week before he entered guilty pleas, on a motion to dismiss the case based on exculpatory evidence in the form of video from the jail no longer existing.

While the motion, filed on Oct. 31, was later withdrawn, it stated that Scott’s defense attorney on Sept. 30, 2016 “filed for all audio and video evidence associated with the arrest and booking” of the defendant.

Hillsboro Municipal Court records show that the initial charges against Scott were filed with the court on June 20 before eventually being waived to a grand jury.

In November, Highland County Sheriff Donnie Barrera declined to comment until Scott was sentenced. On Wednesday, Barrera said that all the video at the jail is on a 90-day loop. He said his office did not receive the request for the video when Scott was booked into the jail until after that 90 days had passed and the video had been recorded over.

Barrera said that the county has no body cameras in use and the cruisers are not equipped with recording equipment, so the only recorded material that could have been available would be from the jail. He said that if the video had been requested within the 90 days, it would have been “flagged” and preserved.

As to a Records Retention Schedule filed by the sheriff’s office stating that such videos were to be kept for a year, Barrera said that it saying one year was likely a “mistake” and that the schedule should state 90 days. However, Barrera said his office is in the process of upgrading to a digital video system that will retain recordings for one year.

In another hearing, Joshua Arnold, 27, Hillsboro, pled guilty to two counts of receiving stolen property, both fifth-degree felonies.

He was sentenced to nine months on each of the charges for a total of 18 months in prison.

The defendant has previous felony convictions, according to the court, and has also been to prison before.

Reach Angela Shepherd at 937-393-3456, ext. 1681, or on Twitter @wordyshepherd.

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http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2017/01/web1_JosephScott-1.jpgScott
Past felonies, supervision violation lead to sentence

By Angela Shepherd

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