He cut off a police officer’s ear in Salt Lake City, but he won’t go to prison

A man who pleaded guilty to cutting an officer’s head with a wrought-iron lawn ornament was sentenced Friday to probation.

Leon Dane Hall, 25, on Dec. 20 entered a guilty plea in 3rd District Court to two charges of assault against a police officer, both third-degree felonies. A charge of interference with an arresting officer, a class B misdemeanor, was dismissed.

“I’m sorry for hitting the officer,” Hass said at a sentencing hearing on Friday. “I was really scared.”

Hall was sentenced to 36 months probation.

His sentence of up to five years in prison for each felony was suspended by Judge Royal Hansen. A fine of $9,050 for each felony was also suspended.

He’ll need to get a substance abuse evaluation and a mental health evaluation, as well as complete the recommended treatment.

Hall also won’t be allowed to live with his mother, unless the move is approved by his probation officer. The order stems from Hall breaking a court order to stay away from her after he was accused of domestic violence in 2015. The prosecutor said the state was concerned he would victimize her and abuse controlled substances.

“The goal here is to break the cycle,” prosecutor Lena Ward said.

According to defense attorney Gregory Stevens, Hall’s mother is willing to take him in. Now that he’s on the right medication, “she believes he has changed,” Stevens said.

Hansen ordered that Hall stay away from drugs or alcohol, from places where drugs and alcohol are available, and from people who would give him drugs or alcohol. Hansen expressly prohibited Hall from going to Pioneer Park, The Road Home, or the Gateway Mall.

“Make sure you’ve got a safety net,” Hansen said on Friday. “This is an important chance and opportunity. Good luck to you.”

Early in the morning on Feb. 3, 2016, Hall had been pounding on doors of the downtown Pauline Apartments at 125 S. 300 East, according to court documents.

Police officers confronted him. He said he was looking for a friend’s apartment.

They told him to leave and asked him for his ID, to which Hall said, “Give me your ID,” according to court documents. Hall reportedly smelled like marijuana, so one of the officers asked if Hall were “high on something.”

“Hall responded, ‘I wish,’ ” court documents state.

When the officers tried to push Hall toward a patrol car, he swung at them and screamed, court documents state. One of the officers hit Hall on the thigh and lower leg with a baton “to gain compliance,” according to court documents.

Officers got Hall to the ground, but he hit one of the lawmen with a wrought-iron lawn ornament, cut the lawman’s ear and gashed his forehead.

He and other officers used a baton and a stun gun to control him and took him into custody.

The officer’s ear was surgically reattached.

The officers had been wearing body cameras, and the footage was reviewed by an internal departmental investigation.

Hall’s brother told gaysaltlake.com that Hall suffers from schizophrenia, as well as brain damage suffered during an assault outside a Salt Lake City dance club in 2011.

At the time, Hall said he had been the target of a “gay-bashing attack.” After an investigation, detectives questioned what had prompted the assault.