OOPSIE-WHOOPSIE!!
PAPERWORK ERROR RESULTS IN LAWRENCE COUNTY, KY. MAN AVOIDING ARREST FOR TEN MONTHS
SUSPECT ALSO CHARGED WITH FELONY STRANGULATION DURING END OF 2022 INCIDENT WHEN HE “INTERVENED” ARGUMENT A WOMAN AND HER HUSBAND, WHO WAS EVENTUALLY THE ONE WHO GOT ATTACKED WITH THE KNIFE
JANUARY 20, 2024 – written by WADE QUEEN
“CLERICAL ERROR” LEADS TO STAY OUT OF JAIL REPRIEVE FOR PHILLIP HART, 25, OF LOUISA, KY., WHO WAS ARRESTED ON FELONY DOMESTIC ASSAULT & STRANGULATION CHARGES AT THE END OF 2022, BUT WAS RELEASED AFTER 60 DAYS DUE TO INDICTMENT DELAY BY COUNTY GRAND JURY, FOLLOWED BY MISTAKE ON INDICTMENT WARRANT PAPERWORK, WHICH LED TO PHILLIP HART TO NOT BE ARRESTED UNTIL MIDDLE OF JANUARY 2024.
Philip Hart, 26, of Louisa, was arrested on December 19, 2022, and was charged with assaulting and strangling a woman and stabbing her husband, after Lawrence County deputies were called to a home on Three D Road over a report of a stabbing.
When deputies arrived, a woman told them she was in an argument with her husband, when the then 25-year-old Philip Hart began punching her in the face, and that he then climbed on top of her and started choking her.
Phillip Hart told the deputies he had a knife in his back pocket while arguing with the wife, and that the husband was stabbed accidentally when he tried to intervene. But other witnesses in the house had a different story, saying Phillip Hart was on top of the wife, choking her with his forearm, when the husband and his mother tried to intervene. Witnesses said Hart then grabbed the knife and stabbed the other man multiple times.
The wife had a large knot on her head and cut on her chin, while her husband had two stab wounds, one on his pelvis, and one on his thigh.
PHILLIP HART MUGSHOT PHOTO TAKEN AFTER HIS ORIGINAL ARREST ON DECEMBER 19, 2022
Phillip Hart was taken to jail, but had to be released in February 2023, after the Lawrence County grand jury still hadn’t indicted him after the required state law that an indictment is given by no later than 60 days if a suspect is still incarcerated after their original arrest.
Phillip Hart was finally indicted in March 2023, but he was apparently never arrested, after court records revealed that an officer, who was not identified, had inadvertently marked the warrant as having been served.
A new warrant was issued earlier this month after the error was discovered, and Phillip Hart was arrested on Sunday night, January 14, by deputy Joseph Osborne of the Lawrence County Sheriff Office, and he was officially charged via his indictment with:
* STRANGULATION 1ST DEGREE,
*ASSAULT, 1ST DEGREE – DOMESTIC VIOLENCE,
*ASSAULT, 4TH DEGREE (DOMESTIC VIOLENCE) MINOR INJURY.
Phillip Hart was later transported to and is currently being held in the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center in Paintsville on a $20,025 full cash bond only.
