Guilty plea in assault yields 7-year term

A Frederick man who was charged last year in the dragging of a Howard County police officer with an SUV pleaded guilty to first-degree assault this week, officials said.

County Circuit Court Judge Richard S. Bernhardt sentenced Robert Michael Brown to 20 years in prison Monday, suspending all but seven years, according to the Howard County state's attorney's office. The judge also ordered Brown, 36, to serve three years of supervised probation.

About 1 a.m. July 23 last year, Pfc. Daniel Besseck responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle at Sand Hill Road, where it crosses Interstate 70. After stopping the vehicle on Alpha Center Drive - which was renamed Scott Wheeler Drive this week for the county police officer killed this year in the line of duty - Besseck attempted to arrest Brown on drug charges. Brown, who was wearing only a T-shirt, drove his Hyundai sport utility vehicle hundreds of feet with Besseck hanging onto the driver-side door.

Besseck, president of the Howard County Police Officers' Association, suffered nerve damage and a herniated disk in his neck and lower back.

Another officer, Raymond Trodden, was awarded the Medal of Honor in April, the Police Department's highest honor, for shooting Brown as he wrestled with Besseck for control of the vehicle.