By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Perkins woman on probation for kicking a female jailer twice on the leg last year has been charged with kicking two more jailers this year while she was being medically assessed for Covid-19 before being placed in a cell at the Payne County Detention Center.
In her new case filed last week, Virginia Ann Hartney, 24, also known by the surname of Hemphill, “was being held on a Perkins municipal charge of public intoxication,” Payne County Undersheriff Chris Nixon told KUSH.
Hartney has not yet been arrested on her new county charge of two counts of assault and battery on a corrections officer punishable by as much as a 10-year prison term on conviction, court records show.
Seven months ago, when Hartney pleaded guilty to assault and battery on another detention officer, she was ordered to continue individual counseling under her current mental health plan, have a substance abuse evaluation, perform any recommended follow-up, undergo random drug tests, do 50 hours of community service, serve 60 days in jail, pay $2,209 in assessments at $40 per month, and be on probation for five years under a deferred sentence.
In an arrest warrant affidavit for her new case, Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Boomer Jones wrote that he received a report of an assault and battery on an officer at 11:40 p.m. on June 19 in the Payne County Jail.
Hartney was in the back seat of Perkins Police Officer Jason Thompson’s vehicle when two county detention deputies were instructed to complete the Covid-19 assessment form on Hartney, the affidavit alleged.
When a female detention officer took Hartney’s temperature, Hartney became combative and “began yelling and thrashing her body in attempts to get away from the officers,” the affidavit alleged.
Two officers got Hartney out of the patrol car and re-positioned the handcuffs from back to front for her blood pressure to be taken, the affidavit alleged.
“Inmate Hartney was still being combative and non-compliant; as the officers tried to sit her back into the vehicle to complete vitals, she grabbed (a female officer’s) left forearm, pinched and twisted breaking skin,” which made the officer’s arm bleed, the affidavit alleged.
“She then kicked (the female officer) in the crotch, then kicked and spat at,” the male officer, the affidavit alleged.
Last year when Hartney was also being held for Perkins police, she reportedly stripped down completely nude while handcuffed to a bench in the Payne County Jail, court records show.
In that case, Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Justin Henninger was advised at 2 p.m. on Jan. 26, 2019, that Hartney, who was handcuffed to the bench in the jail, had been yelling and trying to kick a female detention officer, according to his affidavit.
The female detention officer was kicked in her right and left thigh area while she was grabbing Hartney’s left arm to escort her from the bench to a detox cell, the affidavit said.
A female prisoner wrote in a statement, “Inmate was being loud and belligerent and naked and yelling profanities,” at the female detention officer, whom Hartney kicked, the affidavit said.
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