SKOWHEGAN — A 48-year-old man was sentenced Friday to nine months in prison for a 2022 incident in which he ran over a Pittsfield police officer’s foot while attempting to leave a traffic stop.

Michael Kilgore, left, sits next to his lawyer, Darrick X. Banda, during a sentencing hearing Friday at the Somerset County Superior Courthouse in Skowhegan. Jake Freudberg/Morning Sentinel

Michael Kilgore, who now lives in Norridgewock, according to his lawyer, was sentenced to 42 months in prison, with all but nine months suspended, and two years of probation for a conviction of Class C assault on an officer. A sentence for a lesser assault charge was merged with that sentence.

District Court Judge Andrew Benson handed down the sentence in what he called a “strange” case during Friday’s hearing at the Somerset County Superior Courthouse in Skowhegan.

After a trial in Skowhegan in June, a jury found Kilgore guilty of the Class C count and Class D assault. The jury found Kilgore not guilty on six other counts on which he was indicted.

Kilgore was arrested Sept. 30, 2022, following the incident in Pittsfield involving Officer Chelsea Merry, formerly of the Pittsfield Police Department.

Assistant District Attorney Julia Lodsin said Friday that, according to Merry’s testimony, Kilgore ran over Merry’s foot during a traffic stop after he turned his wheels to the left, where she was standing outside his vehicle.

Kilgore, formerly of East Newport, drove away from the traffic stop and Merry stopped him again. Merry reached inside, and Kilgore then trapped Merry’s arms in his window while starting to drive multiple times, Lodsin said. Merry was ultimately able to free herself.

According to an affidavit Merry filed in court at the time of Kilgore’s arrest, she continued a high-speed chase as Kilgore’s speed exceed 100 mph, but she later stopped pursuing him. Merry then located Kilgore again and arrested him after a physical altercation, she wrote in the affidavit.

“The defendant’s conduct was completely inappropriate, outrageous and dangerous,” Lodsin, the prosecutor, said in court Friday.

Lodsin asked Benson to impose a sentence of five years in prison, with all but three years suspended, and two years of probation. She said Merry still feels pain in her arms from the incident and has since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Merry also no longer works as a law enforcement officer because of the assault, Lodsin said.

Lodsin also asked Benson to consider Kilgore’s prior criminal history, which includes two felony-level convictions for domestic violence assault and operating under the influence.

“The defendant’s character, based on his conduct in this case, is argumentative, confrontational and aggressive,” Lodsin said. “His prior involvement in the criminal justice system has not deterred the defendant from continuing to engage in assaultive and dangerous behavior.”

Merry also read a statement to the court, looking directly at Kilgore at times, during her statement and one her sister read.

“His reckless driving endangered the people within my area of operation,” Merry said. “He intentionally assaulted me in a cruel and unusual manner. Legally, I could have killed him, but, instead, I managed to arrest him.”

Kilgore did not address the court on advice of his lawyer because of the possibility of an appeal.

His lawyer, Darrick X. Banda of the Augusta law firm Bourget & Banda, asked Benson for a lighter sentence because of his interpretation of the jury verdict.

Because the jury found Kilgore not guilty of the more severe aggravated assault charge, which specified the use of a motor vehicle, the assault must have been when Kilgore tried to push Merry’s arms away from him when she reached into his vehicle, Banda said.

“Trying to make sense of this jury verdict is difficult, given the findings, I will fully admit,” Banda said before Benson. “But what I don’t think that what we’re sentencing on here is rolling over somebody’s foot. I don’t think what we’re punishing here is rolling up a police officer’s arm in a window. If that were the case, the jury had ample opportunity to find him guilty on Count 1 (Class B aggravated assault).”

Kilgore has stayed out of criminal trouble for several years and recently reobtained his commercial driver’s license to use for work, Banda said.

Benson ultimately disagreed with Banda’s argument about what the jury considered to be the assault.

“The court concludes that the assault that the jury found arose out of the incident in which the defendant drove over Officer Merry’s foot,” Benson said, attributing the acquittal of the other charges to specific jury instructions.

In crafting his sentence, Benson said the aggravating factors and mitigating factors presented by both sides more or less balanced each other out.

“This is a strange case,” Benson said. “And, in many ways, Mr. Kilgore’s conduct, the court concludes, is quite outrageous.”

Kilgore is scheduled to begin his sentence Aug. 30.

Banda, meanwhile, said he plans to file an appeal.