Published: August 15, 2008 12:35 pm            

Using his ‘head’ lands prisoner in hospital

GREENVILLE — A Commerce man was transported Monday to the emergency room at Presbyterian Hospital of Greenville, after witnesses said he rammed his head through the glass portion of a courtroom door.

Terrence Anthony Roundtree, 23, was facing the revocation of his probations he had received last year for assaulting two Commerce Police Department officers during a hearing Monday in the 196th District Court.

Hunt County District Attorney F. Duncan Thomas said Judge Joe Leonard instead reset the action.

“He set it off for a later date,” Thomas said, a move which apparently angered Roundtree to where the defendant began using profanity.

“The judge ruled that he was in contempt,” Thomas said.

Roundtree received a six month sentence and was ordered returned to the Hunt County Jail.

“As they were removing him from the courtroom, head-butted the door and broke the glass,” Thomas said.

Roundtree was reported to have suffered lacerations to his head and face. The impact was so loud that employees in the Hunt County District Clerk’s office one floor below said they both heard and felt it.

Units from the Greenville Fire Department and American Medical Response were dispatched to the scene and Roundtree was later taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Roundtree pleaded guilty in June 2007 to one count of aggravated assault against a public servant and one count of assault against a public servant. Under a plea bargain arrangement, Roundtree was placed on 10 years of deferred adjudication probation with a $500 fine. Roundtree was also ordered to submit to a mental evaluation and to pay restitution.

According to a criminal complaint, Commerce officers were dispatched to the area of the intersection of State Highway 224 and Loop 178 in Commerce on the afternoon of April 2, 2007 in response to calls of a reckless and/or intoxicated driver. Roundtree’s car was alleged to have struck another vehicle along Highway 224 and continued, with the driver of the second vehicle in pursuit and keeping Roundtree’s automobile in sight.

The officers later caught up to Roundtree in the parking lot of Leberman Hall on the Texas A&M University-Commerce campus.

Roundtree was found to have an outstanding warrant and, while being placed in custody, he struck one officer with his fist and the other with his open hand. One officer was reported to have been seriously injured.

Deferred adjudication carries no finding of guilt, although those defendants who are found to have violated a deferred probation are subject to being sentenced to the maximum punishment.

Roundtree was facing a maximum sentence upon conviction on the aggravated assault charge — a first degree felony — of from five to 99 years to life in prison and an optional fine of up to $10,000.

A motion to revoke Roundtree’s probation was filed last month and he was arrested on July 28.

        

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