photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

John Price is pictured at a preliminary hearing on May 23, 2024, in Douglas County District Court.

A Lawrence man was sentenced on Friday to more than 10 years in prison for attacking a Douglas County sheriff’s deputy while in court in 2022.

Last month, a jury convicted John Timothy Price, 36, of one felony count of battery on a law enforcement officer, and Judge Amy Hanley sentenced him on Friday to 130 months, or 10.8 years, in prison. The incident he was convicted for in March happened during two back-to-back trials in December 2022.

During those trials, at which Price was ultimately convicted for throwing bricks at passing cars and smashing windows on buildings, Price punched his guard, deputy Carson Rhodes, in the face, as the Journal-World reported.

That week of trials included other outbursts from Price, as well, and he was repeatedly removed and eventually fitted with a “stun cuff” that could be used to shock him if he acted out.

This is not the only time Price was convicted of battery on a law enforcement officer. In May 2024, he was convicted for spitting in a corrections officer’s mouth in September of 2022 while awaiting the trials in December 2022.

In that case, he got a lighter sentence than what state guidelines recommended. Judge Stacey Donovan granted a durational departure for two years in prison, when the guidelines recommended 130 months.

On Friday, Price’s attorney, Razmi Tahirkheli, asked Hanley to do the same thing. Tahirkheli said that if Price had punched someone other than an officer, it would have been a misdemeanor, and he argued that the statute Price was convicted under was intended to protect corrections officers specifically, which he said Rhodes was not. Tahirkheli argued that a corrections officer is afforded extra protections because they are unarmed while in the jail, while Rhodes was acting as a personal guard for Price during the trial and was armed with a gun.

Hanley rejected Tahirkheli’s argument and said that she and the jury who convicted Price both believed that Rhodes was acting in his duty as a law enforcement officer and that the statute applied.

Hanley ordered Price’s new sentence to be served consecutively with his previous sentences; his total prison time is now 17 years.