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WILKES-BARRE — A Sugar Notch man was sentenced Friday to 116 days time served after pleading guilty to a disorderly conduct charge alleging he discharged a round from a firearm at the borough’s police chief last year.
Richard Copeland, 30, was accused by borough police after he allegedly fired a round at Jeremy Talanca, who responded to a residence in the 700 block of Main Street for a domestic disturbance on Oct. 21. Talanca was the police chief at the time.
Court records say Copeland barricaded himself in the residence as Talanca requested assistance from other police departments.
Several nearby homes were evacuated and streets were closed during a nearly six-hour standoff with state police. Copeland surrendered peacefully and was charged by borough police with two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of assault upon a law enforcement officer and recklessly endangering another person.
A conviction of assaulting a law enforcement officer carries a penalty of up to 40 years in prison.
During a court appearance before Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough, Copeland, who represented by attorney Demetrius Fannick, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct and was immediately sentenced to 116 days time served in jail.
Talanca was not in court during Friday’s proceeding. He could not be reached for comment.
Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis responded to a reporter’s questions in an email Friday afternoon.
“After having to personally serve the former chief with a subpoena to show up and produce specific evidence, he could not produce the video that was claimed to be evidence of the crime and the audio was unclear,” Salavantis wrote. “They also had no corroboration of the former chief’s version of events and the Chief had subsequently been relieved of his position.”
“As a result, we felt that the highest charges could not be supported beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury,” Salavantis concluded.