(Stillwater, Okla.) – A Cushing man has been charged with repeatedly hitting a detention officer in the head with a police hand-held radio – while the officer was in the process of releasing him from custody on drunk driving and drug possession misdemeanor charges.
After the alleged attack on the jailer, Dennis John Lewallen Jr., 51, was re-arrested and ordered held on $5,000 total bail in the Payne County Jail where he remained this morning pending his appearance on all of his charges before a judge on Wednesday, a sheriff’s spokesman told KUSH.
Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Joseph Henninger wrote in an affidavit, “I asked him why he attacked the detention officer; he told me he did not know.”
The jailer was taken to the Stillwater Medical Center where he “was treated for his injuries and received five staples in the back right side of his head,” the affidavit said.
If convicted of the new charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, Lewallen could be incarcerated for as much as 10 years and fined $10,000, court records show.
Lewallen was originally being held in the Payne County Jail on misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence of an intoxicating substance and possessing a controlled drug listed as Suboxone Sublingual film, both on Oct. 29 in Cushing, court records show.
But when Lewallen was arraigned from jail on Oct. 30, Special District Judge Katherine Thomas found that there was no probable cause affidavit for review and ordered that he be released on a personal recognizance bond to re-appear in court the next day, court records show.
According to the deputy’s affidavit, the detention officer said that “he was escorting Dennis Lewallen out of the jail on Oct. 30,” and when they got to the west door, “Lewallen bumped into him with his stomach.”
The detention officer said that after he told Lewallen to step back, “Lewallen grabbed his jail radio from his duty belt and struck him in the head multiple times,” before he was able to take Lewallen to the ground, the affidavit alleged.
Video of the incident showed the detention officer escorting Lewallen to the west door where the officer opened the door and Lewallen chest-bumped him before backing off, the affidavit alleged.
“Then it shows Lewallen walking around to square off with (the detention officer),” before lunging at him, shoving him into the walkway and grabbing his radio, the affidavit alleged.
With the radio in hand, Lewallen struck the detention officer in the head, the affidavit alleged. When the detention officer began trying to take Lewallen to the ground, Lewallen struck the officer in the head again before the officer got on top of Lewallen, the affidavit alleged.
The video showed two detention officers coming to assist in placing Lewallen in handcuffs, the affidavit said.
In addition to his new felony charge, Lewallen remains charged with drunk driving and drug possession in Cushing, each of which are misdemeanors punishable by a maximum one-year jail term plus a $1,000 fine on conviction, court records show.
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