Man injures court security officer during altercation

A Whitley County Sheriff’s Department Court Security Officer is recovering with six staples in his head following an altercation with a suspect inside the Whitley County Judicial Center Wednesday morning.

During his arraignment Thursday afternoon, Whitley District Judge Fred White entered a not guilty plea for Richie A. Dawn, 36, who is charged with third-degree assault, first-degree disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in connection with the incident.

During Thursday’s video arraignment White scheduled a June 1 preliminary hearing in the case, appointed the public advocate’s office to represent Richie and left his $10,000 cash bond in place.

Sheriff Colan Harrell said the incident occurred about 9:50 a.m. on May 27 at the Whitley County Judicial Center.

Court Security Officer Tommy Hurst, who is over security operations at the judicial center, said he was working on the first floor when he heard a crash on one of the upper floors.

Hurst rushed up to the second floor to investigate and when he didn’t see anything went up to the third floor where he saw a garbage can rolling around in the floor.

"It looked like it had been thrown against the wall up there," Hurst said. "About the time I hit the third floor and saw that, I heard a crash on the second floor."

Hurst then ran down the steps to the second floor where he saw a trash can still rolling but nobody in sight.

He proceeded to the first floor where he located Dawn, who was in an agitated state.

"I told him to stop. He was non-compliant," Hurst said. "I told him he was tearing my building up. He said he didn’t care and started ranting but it didn’t make a lot of sense. He said he had been stolen from and they took his life away in court."

Hurst said he couldn’t make any sense out of what Dawn was saying, and told him that he would have to work that out in court.

Hurst then told Dawn he was under arrest for disorderly conduct.

"He said, ‘I’m not under arrest for disorderly conduct.’ I said, ‘You will need to stop sir. You are making a mistake,’" Hurst noted.

Dawn then started towards the front door as Hurst continued to talk to him in an effort to get him to stop.

During that time, Court Security Officer Kathy Karr positioned herself between Dawn and the door.

Hurst said he then proceeded to get in between Dawn and Karr, told Dawn that he was under arrest and not to make any more movements towards him or he would take it as a threat.

Dawn didn’t comply and an altercation ensued.

During that time, Dawn grabbed a hand held metal detector wand off front the desk next to the entrance and hit Hurst in the head twice.

Hurst said that Dawn caught him with the edge of the wand, which cut his head causing it to bleed.

With blood starting to flow into his left eye, Hurst then wrestled Dawn to the ground and subdued him until additional officers arrived.

Sheriff’s Chief Deputy K.Y. Fuson later placed Dawn under arrest and lodged him in the Whitley County Detention Center.

Hurst said his goal every day at the judicial center is a nice quiet uneventful day.

"You don’t want this to happen to begin with but you want to end it as soon as possible if it does happen," Hurst added.

Hurst said that he dealt with a similar incident four or five weeks ago when a judge ordered him to place a drug court participant under arrest.

Hurst told the man to turn towards the holding cell and instead he bolted towards the door.

Hurst and Court Security Officer Ed Traveny then had to subdue the man, but nobody was injured during that incident.