Man who assaulted jailer sent to prison

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A Van Wert man was sentenced to more than 8½ years in prison on Friday for assaulting a corrections officer at the Van Wert County Correctional Facility.

Robert Galloway Jr., 33, was sentenced by Van Wert County Common Pleas Judge Martin D. Burchfield on two separate cases.

Galloway was sentenced to six months in prison on a charge of possession of heroin, a fifth-degree felony. He then was sentenced on charges related to his assault of a corrections officer, receiving six years in prison on a charge of felonious assault, a felony of the second degree; 18 months in prison on a charge of harassment by bodily substance against a sheriff’s deputy, a third-degree felony; and nine months in prison on a charge of assault, a felony of the fifth degree.

All of the charges are to be served consecutively to one another, resulting in a total prison sentence of 8 years, 9 months.

Galloway entered guilty pleas to the charges related to the assault of a deputy on March 1 in Common Pleas Court. One count of attempted murder, a felony of the first degree, was dropped in exchange for Galloway’s guilty plea to the remaining charges.

Judge Burchfield had ordered a presentence investigation in the case.

Galloway, a martial arts practitioner, had apparently assaulted the office using a martial arts move, and later threw urine at officers who were attempting to subdue him.