photo by: Mugshot courtesy of the Kansas Sex Offender Registry

Nicholas Scott Atwell is pictured with the Douglas County Judicial and Law Enforcement Center.

A Lawrence man was sentenced to 3 years in prison on Wednesday in Douglas County District Court for leading police on a car chase downtown and assaulting an officer with his car in the summer of 2021.

Nicholas Scott Atwell, 34, was convicted in January of one count of felony flee and elude and one felony count of assault on a law enforcement officer after entering a no contest plea as part of a plea agreement. He was originally charged with additional felony counts of assault on an officer, aggravated burglary, and interference with law enforcement, as well as misdemeanor charges for criminal damage and transporting an open container.

Judge Sally Pokorny sentenced Atwell to 36 months for the assault on an officer and six months for fleeing from police and ordered the sentences to run concurrently; however, she ordered those sentences to run consecutively with any sentences he receives for violating his parole, in accordance with Kansas sentencing guidelines.

Atwell is on parole for a 2009 drug possession conviction and is on lifetime parole for a 2010 conviction for attempted rape, according to court records.

Atwell’s defense attorney, Michelle David, said that running Atwell’s sentences consecutively with his possible parole violation sanctions could amount to a “manifest injustice” since the Kansas parole board can impose a sanction on Atwell for as little as 90 days or as much as the rest of his life. She said that if the parole board does impose a long sentence on Atwell that he could end up serving much more time than the 36 months Pokorny sentenced him to.

Pokorny disagreed with David and said that to say that the parole board will impose a long sentence would be speculative and that the board also has discretion to determine how long Atwell’s sanction, if any, will be.

Before Atwell was sentenced, Pokorny asked if he had anything to say. Atwell said he was not good at public speaking and asked the court to allow his family to speak on his behalf.

His brother, Christopher Atwell told the court that he had always known his brother Nick to be a kind and understanding person but that he ran into a string of bad luck. Christopher added that in the past he tried to get Nick help for his mental health issues but that the treatment options were not adequate to provide long-term support.

Another relative, who said her name was Georgia Atwell, said that Atwell had the support of his family and she hoped that could help him “spiritually and otherwise.”

After the hearing, Atwell was returned to the Douglas County Jail.

The charges relate to an incident on June 27, 2021, when police responded to a report of men drinking in a car outside of the Bourgeois Pig, 6 East Ninth St., around 7 p.m. When police attempted to make contact with the driver of the vehicle, Atwell, the car fled, as the Journal World reported.

Atwell nearly hit multiple pedestrians downtown while fleeing and repeatedly swerved at pursuing officers, according to the police affidavit in support of Atwell’s arrest. He drove into oncoming traffic on Sixth Street, running a red light and hitting a police car, and reached speeds of nearly 80 mph before Atwell’s passenger, fearing for his life, asked to get out of the car near the intersection of Seventh and Maine streets.

Atwell then returned to the downtown area, where he almost struck another pedestrian before driving through parts of South Park and hitting another police patrol vehicle. Atwell abandoned the vehicle around 7:30 p.m. near the intersection of 10th and New Jersey streets where he fled on foot. Police continued to search for Atwell until around 10 that night but were unable to locate him, according to the affidavit.

Atwell was arrested the next day at his home and has been in custody on a $50,000 cash or surety bond since his arrest.