FARMINGTON — A Franklin County judge found a Chesterville man guilty after he pleaded no contest Wednesday to misdemeanor-level charges of refusing to submit to arrest or detention and criminal trespass in two separate cases.
Two counts of unlawful sexual contact in connection to an adult woman, and a charge of falsifying physical evidence were dismissed. Donald Wright, 46, was charged in November 2018 and indicted in 2019 on those charges. He pleaded no contest Wednesday to a charge of refusing to submit to arrest or detention.
Also dismissed were charges of aggravated criminal trespass, assault and violation of bail related to a March 2020 case. He was indicted on the charge on March 3, 2020. Instead he pleaded no contest to a criminal trespass charge.
In the Farmington District Court, Wright relied on the assistance of interpreters on Zoom to translate his native Jamaican Patois, an English-based creole language with West African influences.
Judge Tammy Ham-Thompson explained to Wright that by pleading no contest the court would find him guilty.
A no-contest plea means that someone is not admitting to doing anything wrong but understands that with the evidence the state has if used at trial, a jury could find the person guilty.
Ham-Thompson sentenced Wright on the charge of refusing to submit to arrest to 180 days in jail with all but 30 days suspended and one-year probation.
She also sentenced him to 364 days on the criminal trespass charge, all suspended, and one-year of probation, which is consecutive to the sentence for refusing to submit.
Assistant District Attorney James Andrews said that means when he is released from the 30-day sentence, he will serve two years of probation.
Conditions during probation include undergoing an evaluation for alcohol abuse and to undergo counseling, if necessary, to the satisfaction of his probation officer.
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