A man who lied about his driving history under oath has been sentenced to serve nine months in jail.
The driving offender, Sean Renfrow Harrison, 39, entered guilty pleas before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to charges of aggravated perjury and violation of habitual traffic offender status. He was given 60 days on the perjury charge and 150 days on the traffic offender charge, with the charges being run consecutively, or one after another. He must also perform 100 hours public service work and pay $2,000.
Harrison’s issues began when Sheriff’s Deputy Cory Knowles pulled him over on South Chancery Street. Knowles said he knew Harrison had been declared a habitual traffic offender due to prior drunk driving convictions and convictions for driving on a revoked license. Being declared a habitual traffic offender means the person is automatically charged with a felony offense if he or she is caught driving or violating any driving law. The person generally has his or her license revoked for a period of 10 years once they are declared a habitual offender but may petition the court, provided they have not re-offended, to re-instate their license early. This was the case for Harrison who doubled his trouble in asking for his license back when he lied to the court concerning the violation of his driving status.
“He intentionally made a false statement under oath, specifically, his testimony concerning his operation of a motor vehicle during the time he had been declared a habitual traffic offender,” reads his indictment for perjury.
His false statement came during his attempt last September to get his license re-instated following his arrest on the traffic stop made by Knowles.