AUGUSTA — A city man will serve a year in prison for unlawful possession of heroin and for assaulting three corrections officers at the jail by spitting on them while they were trying to remove him from an area where inmates had apparently caused flooding.
Ricardo David Perry, 21, of Augusta, pleaded guilty to all the offenses and admitted violating probation by committing new criminal conduct. He was sentenced Thursday afternoon during a hearing at the Capital Judicial Center.
The 12-month sentence will be concurrent with a three-year revocation of probation.
Assistant District Attorney Tyler LeClair told Justice Michaela Murphy that probation officers did a check on Perry on March 3 when he attempted to stuff something into the back of his pants. The items — later identified as 27 small plastic bags containing heroin — instead fell to the floor.
Perry was arrested and later indicted on a charge of aggravated trafficking in heroin.
While being held on that charge, LeClair said, Perry was causing a commotion at the Kennebec County jail on June 29 when officers were dealing with inmate flooding of a cell block and trying to remove him from the area.
LeClair said Perry refused to be handcuffed, refused to kneel in the elevator as ordered and assaulted the officers by spitting on them.
On Thursday, in a plea deal, Perry pleaded to possession rather than trafficking.
Justice Michaela Murphy refused a request by defense attorney Lisa Whittier to delay imposing the sentence for two weeks so Perry’s family, which was en route from Pennsylvania, could visit him at the jail and deliver him sneakers before he was sent to prison.
Perry, formerly of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was first arrested in Maine when he was 18 and accused of kidnapping a Chelsea man and holding him captive in his own home. Perry later pleaded guilty to a criminal restraint charge in that case and was sentenced to five months in jail.
In June 2014, Perry was sentenced for trafficking in heroin and assaulting two corrections officers, one of whom got pushed into the shower and another of whom was punched in the face, in an assault that involved another inmate. Perry was ordered to serve 13 months in prison with the remainder of the five-year sentence suspended and two years’ probation. He remained on probation on those offenses when he was arrested March 3.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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