Sheriff attacked during domestic dispute

Sheriff Lawrence Hodge’s attempt to break up a fight between two women Sunday evening resulted him taking a few blows to the head, and a Williamsburg man facing a charge of assaulting an officer.
Hodge said he was sitting at his home late Sunday evening getting ready to head to Corbin to assist with an armed robbery investigation, when a guy pulled into his driveway to report a dispute on New Zion Road.
“He said there was going to be a killing about a quarter of a mile from my house. It was a bad domestic,” Hodge said. “I got up there, and two women were fighting. I got in between them, and the fight was on. They were all liquor drunk drinking Wild Turkey.
“While I was breaking that one fight up, an old man grabbed me by the throat, and sucker punched me in the head. When I got a hold of him, his girlfriend sucker punched me in the head, and another man took off on foot, and jumped through a window. We later tracked him down, and caught him.”
Hodge said that soon after his call for assistance went out, several other officers soon arrived on the scene, including: Deputies Glenn Bunch, Jeremiah Morgan, Dennis Foley, Josh Meadors, Brandon Prewitt, and Kentucky State Police Trooper David Lassiter.
Dewey W. Rose, 69, of Williamsburg, was charged with third-degree assault, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and public intoxication.
Beth A. Barnett, 38, of Corbin, was charged with public intoxication, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct.
Hodge said that aside from a few minor bumps to the head, he suffered no significant injuries during the scuffle.
Police apprehended Alex Proffitt, the man who allegedly jumped through the window and took off on foot, about half an hour later following a brief pursuit.
Hodge said Profitt sneaked back into his New Zion Road home where deputies found him hiding under the bed. He resisted arrest when police tried to place him in custody, Hodge added.
“He resisted them boys when they found him, so he was charged with resisting arrest, but I don’t think he made it to the point of laying hands on anybody,” Hodge said. “He was taken to Baptist Regional Medical Center where he got stitches for the wounds he received jumping through the window.”
Police charged Proffitt, 34, of London, with alcohol intoxication, resisting arrest, fleeing or evading police, and third-degree criminal mischief.
Police also served two bench warrants issued by Whitley County District Judges this year on Proffitt in two separate misdemeanor cases.