Bainbridge man sentenced to prison in Highland County failure to comply case
A Bainbridge man was sentenced to prison this week after pleading guilty to one count of failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer in Highland County Common Pleas Court.
Michael A. Newsome, 53, of Bainbridge was indicted on the third-degree felony March 5. He pleaded guilty to the charge on April 3.
According to a bill of particulars, it is alleged that or about Jan. 18 in Greenfield, a police officer attempted to initiate a traffic stop on Newsome’s vehicle. Newsome allegedly “proceeded to accelerate rapidly” away from the Greenfield police officer, including making turns without a signal, driving “the wrong way down a one-way street” and narrowly avoiding hitting, or being hit by, other vehicles.
The officer “observed [Newsome’s] vehicle go airborne for a brief moment, and the vehicle threw sparks when it landed,” as it proceeded through the village, the bill of particulars alleges. Newsome eventually came to a stop when he crashed the vehicle, then attempted to flee on foot, according to the bill of particulars.
Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss sentenced Newsome to 18 months in prison, with jail time credit of 74 days. Newsome’s driver’s license will be suspended for three years.
In addition, because Newsome was on post-release control from an unrelated case at the time of the offense, he was ordered to serve an additional 541 days consecutive to the 18-month sentence.
Because Newsome caused damage to another vehicle during the incident in January, he was ordered to pay $500 in restitution to that vehicle’s owner.
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