A judge today sentenced an Oak Park man accused of stabbing a police officer during a melee inside the defendant's home to a year in county jail.
Irvin Berkeley Brown, 62, was convicted June 30 of felony obstruction of a peace officer and two misdemeanors, resisting arrest and evading an officer.
Brown also had been charged with two counts of felony assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer. His Sacramento Superior Court jury could not reach a decision on those two counts and Judge Laurie M. Earl declared a mistrial.
Deputy District Attorney Tan Thinh and the Probation Department both recommended that Brown be sent to prison for two years on the obstruction conviction.
Judge Earl cited Brown's age and his "position in the community" -- he is a deacon at a local church -- as mitigating factors in her decision to sentence him to county jail instead of state prison.
Earl also sentenced Brown to five years probation.
The April 14, 2010, incident began when a Sacramento police officer pulled Brown over for driving without a seatbelt. Brown then cursed the officer and drove home, police said. Officers followed him to his residence on 23rd Avenue and entered his house.
In their effort to arrest him, Brown armed himself with a seven-inch kitchen knife and stabbed Officer Thomas Price in the back of his thigh, police said. Price told the court today he is currently off duty as a result of the incident. He also said he is dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
Brown admitted in a statement to a police detective after the incident that he had stabbed the officer, according to his probation report.
His attorney, Alex Asterlin, said that the statement was made under duress and not admitted at trial. Asterlin said it was never conclusively established at trial how the officer was injured.
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