Fathers love their daughters and would do nearly anything for them. However, one doctor was accused of taking his love for his daughter too far. He was recently sentenced after pleading guilty to reduced felony charges in an Ohio courtroom.
His daughter was going through a particularly contentious divorce. The custody battle between her and her soon-to-be ex-husband caused the woman’s father to attack his son-in-law. Police found medications that they contend could have killed the man if the woman’s father had administered them. The cocktail was never used, however, because the man managed to break free of his father-in-law and call for help.
The father was originally charged with attempted aggravated murder. However, his criminal defense counsel and Ohio prosecutors brokered a plea agreement whereby the doctor pleaded guilty to a lesser offense. Recently, a judge sentenced the man to three years in prison for felonious assault.
The judge could have sentenced the man between two and eight years in prison. Even though the judge sympathized with the father’s plight concerning the circumstances of the divorce, he could not condone the father’s actions. Therefore, he chose to sentence him on the lighter end of the spectrum.
In this man’s case, taking a plea agreement in order to reduce both the criminal charges and the time he will spend in prison was most likely his best option. The evidence against the doctor was most likely strong enough to convince him the plea agreement was in his own best interests. If he had been convicted of the original felony charges he was facing, he could have spent a significantly longer time in prison.
Source: cleveland.com, “Pennsylvania doctor sentenced to 3 years in prison for attack on his son-in-law in Cleveland Heights“, James F. McCarty, July 1, 2014