POLSON – A 40-year-old Ronan man with a long criminal history has been sentenced to eight years in prison for throwing two cups of hot coffee on a jailer.
Court records say Richard Buck was in the Lake County Jail on April 10 facing two counts of assault with a weapon and one count of assault on a peace officer when he threw two cups of hot coffee on a detention officer, burning his hands.
Buck was convicted on the first set of charges, which involved pointing a rifle at two volunteer firefighters and at a Lake County sheriff’s deputy who responded to a report of an illegal bonfire during the height of the 2007 fire season.
District Judge C.B. McNeil sentenced Buck to 10 years in prison with five suspended in the bonfire case, and on Wednesday added a consecutive 10 years in prison with two suspended in the coffee case.