A man accused of using a motor vehicle to assault a Department of Defense law enforcement officer at Red River Army Depot pleaded not guilty at a hearing Monday before a federal judge in Texarkana.
Dontrell McChester, 32, appeared for arraignment Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Caroline Craven on a charge of assaulting a federal officer with attorney Michael Friedman of Texarkana. Friedman entered a not guilty plea for McChester.
At the hearing, Craven ordered McChester’s federal indictment unsealed. A grand jury in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas issued the indictment Sept. 20.
According to the indictment, McChester “did knowingly and intentionally forcibly assault, resist, oppose, impede, intimidate, and interfere with Nicholas Nunn,” who was working as a law enforcement officer Sept. 11 at RRAD.
“Such acts involved physical contact and occurred while Officer Nunn was engaged in and on account of performance of his physical duties,” the indictment states. McChester allegedly used a motor vehicle as a deadly weapon to inflict bodily injury on Nunn.
According to a notice of penalty attached to McChester’s indictment, he faces up to eight years in federal prison, a fine up to $250,000, or both if found guilty of the offense and to have had physical contact with the victim. The maximum punishment increases to 20 years if McChester is found guilty of the offense and found to have used a deadly or dangerous weapon or inflicted bodily injury.
McChester is currently in the custody of U.S. Marshals. His case is set for trial Nov. 26 before U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder III in Texarkana.
