Facing five years in jail, a Holmes Beach man will instead spend five days incarcerated and three years on probation after pleading no contest to choking and restraining a woman.
Richard Scott Eason, 29, was arrested in November 2014 after the attack was caught on video in a driveway on the 500 block of 74th Street in Holmes Beach.
Eason was charged by the 12th Judicial Circuit Court State Attorney with misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief and domestic battery and felony counts of domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment and possession of a controlled substance.
On Sept. 8, 12th Circuit Judge Diana L. Moreland accepted Eason’s no-contest plea, dropped the felony battery and found him guilty of a misdemeanor battery.
For the remaining counts, Eason’s adjudication was withheld and he was sentenced to credit for time served in Manatee County jail. He served three days in jail at his arrest.
He reported to the Manatee County jail Sept. 11 to serve his jail time. Eason’s sentence would have changed to 364 days in jail if he’d failed to report at that time, according to court records.
Eason also was sentenced to 200 hours of public service, six months of mental health and substance abuse counseling, and ordered to make no harmful contact with the victim and enroll in a batterer’s intervention program.
Eason also was ordered to pay a total of $1,216 in court costs and state fees, including $413 for the felony, $100 for the cost of prosecution and $200 for HBPD investigative costs, $201 into a domestic violence fund, $151 into a rape crisis trust fund and $151 into a state minors’ fund.
— Kathy Prucnell