(WWJ) — A former Michigan police sergeant has been sentenced for assaulting a jail inmate under his supervision.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Thursday 44-year-old Ronald Leggitt of Marshal has been sentenced to two years’ probation for the assault, which happened at the Hillsdale County Jail in December of 2021.
Leggitt will spend the first seven days of his sentence in jail, according to the AG’s office.
Leggitt was ordered to stand trial in the case last July, but pleaded guilty in November to one count each of misconduct in office and aggravated assault.
Under the sentence, Leggitt has also permanently relinquished his MCOLES certification, a requisite for employment as a police officer in the state of Michigan, according to the AG’s office.
“With this conviction, Mr. Leggitt has been stripped of his ability to serve as a police officer in Michigan, preventing him from harming others who would have been under his authority,” Nessel said at the time of his plea. “My Department remains committed to holding accountable those who abuse their positions.”
The AG’s office says in the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2021 a woman was brought into custody at the Hillsdale County Jail, where Leggitt was supervising operations and staff.
Staff at the jail were informed the woman had resisted officers during the arrest, according to Nessel’s office.
At the jail, the woman “continued to exhibit resistant and disruptive behavior,” officials said, and over the course of about 80 minutes, Leggitt used pepper spray on the woman six times.
Leggitt sprayed the chemical irritant into her face from a distance of “mere inches,” according to Nessel’s office.
During five of the six assaults, the woman was secured in an emergency restraint chair, where she was restrained in wrist and ankle cuffs as well as a chest restraint.