Windsor man jailed six months for assaulting police, fleeing

A Windsor man who assaulted two police officers and later fled from custody has been jailed for six months.

Kerry Lee Sampson, 31, pleaded guilty in Kentville provincial court Thursday morning to two counts of assaulting a police officer, escaping custody and breach of a court order.

He would have appeared in Windsor court, but the court was not sitting Thursday.

“I’ve been dealing with Mr. Sampson for years, and he just doesn’t seem to learn his lesson,” Crown attorney Bill Fergusson told Judge Ronda van der Hoek.

Fergusson said Sampson was free on a recognizance on home invasion charges out of Halifax. His release conditions required him to be under house arrest, but he wasn’t home when RCMP went to his residence Oct. 20 to check that he was complying with his conditions.

Sampson called police the next day to say that he had been at a dentist appointment with his surety.

“The police had some questions about the veracity of his statement,” Fergusson said, so they called the dentist’s office and none of the staff said that Sampson was there that day.

Sampson called the dentist Monday asking for a letter saying he had been there on the Friday, but was refused, Fergusson said. That was after police had contacted the dentist.

Four days later, RCMP went to Sampson’s residence to arrest him for breaching his release conditions, but he resisted and assaulted the two officers, striking both in the mouth. He was subdued with a Taser, and then taken to hospital to have the Taser darts removed from his body.

After being released from hospital and back into police custody, Sampson was taken to his house to get a new shirt on his way to the RCMP office. But after getting there he took off on foot — handcuffed and without shoes on — and escaped.

Sampson was located about 24 hours later after an anonymous tip. He ran again but was arrested without incident a short time later at a family member’s home in Three Mile Plains.