The Marion Co. Prosecutor's Office charged IMPD Officer Justin Beaton with attempted murder, domestic battery, obstruction of justice, and pointing a firearm at another person earlier this year nearly six months after he shot a gun at his girlfriend, Nikki Payne, causing her serious facial injuries, including a broken nose, cheek and jaw bone that caused her to swallow teeth and glass shards from a broken door window through which he fired the gun at her.
Beaton lied to police and blamed his girlfriend's injuries on an accident at the time she was originally treated for her injuries. Fearing Beaton, Payne also initially lied about the cause of her injuries before later telling prosecutors what really happened.
Now just five days before he was scheduled to go on trial, the prosecutor's office reached a plea agreement with Beaton under which he has agreed to plead guilty to just one count of criminal recklessness, a low-level felony crime under which he could be sentenced to as little as one year but no more than six years in prison.
It's too bad Beaton's attorney, Jack Crawford, couldn't have obtained such a sweetheart plea deal for poor Gus Mendenhall, who is serving a 40-year sentence for attempted murder and aggravated battery after beating up State Rep. Ed DeLaney but never firing a single shot at him. DeLaney's life must be more important than Nikki Payne's life. Or is it because Beaton is a police officer?
UPDATE: WTHR is reporting that Payne was refusing to testify against Beaton, which is why the prosecutor's office agreed to this outrageous plea agreement. I guess she wants to give him another chance to finish the job he started.
7 comments:
Please find somebody to run against Curry. Please.
Didn't Ann DeLaney have something to do with Crawford's problems at the Hoosier Lottery during the Bayh administration?
He could have not plead at all, let her not show up to trial or to recant, and gotten off with no charges at all. It's real easy to criticize, but especially in domestics if the victim recants or refuses to testify, you've got nothing so you salvage what you can with a plea.
It always helps if you have a prosecutor who take no contact orders and witness tampering seriously.
She's pregnant with a baby he wanted her to abort. Now she wants to marry the guy. Not sure which one is sicker.
Uh... does Curry still have a pulse? He has to be dead. A real Prosecutor would be so busy with all the Greg Ballard corruption... Oh, wait... Democrat Curry sees no evil, hears no evil, prosecutes no evil... A total embarrassment to the Indianapolis Democratic Party. Total.
Does he lose his job as a cop with a felony conviction or is that ignored as well?
Post a Comment