Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Reed sentenced Taja Haywood to three years of probation on Monday.
Mackenzi Klemann/The Lima News
LIMA — A Lima woman who punched a Mercy Health-St. Rita’s Medical Center police officer in the face while the woman was experiencing a mental health crisis last summer will spend three years on probation.
Taja Haywood, 22, faced a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison and a $15,000 fine when she pleaded guilty last month to a single count of attempted felonious assault of a police officer, a second-degree felony.
Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Reed sentenced Haywood on Monday to three years of probation instead, finding that the presumption of prison time associated with the charge was overcome by the circumstances in her case.
Public Defender Kenneth Sturgill asked the court to consider probation in lieu of prison, citing Haywood’s mental state at the time of the incident as well as her lack of prior criminal record and a plan developed with the Allen County Guardianship Services Board to secure supervised housing and employment for Haywood.
“I don’t think that prison is appropriate for someone in this case, who while going through a mental health crisis throws one punch,” Sturgill said.
Officer Matthew Durke, who was not present at sentencing, received four stitches near his left eye after Haywood punched him in the face while she was at the hospital last June.
Haywood apologized Monday and admitted that she called police on herself that day because she was in distress.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Carp did not make a sentencing recommendation.
Still, Carp said the officer previously expressed to prosecutors that Haywood should spend some time incarcerated but that he “didn’t want this to ruin her life.”
Haywood spent 193 days at the Allen County Jail awaiting trial.
