LEBANON, Ohio -- A judge on Wednesday sentenced a former Montgomery County deputy for assaulting his wife and stepdaughter, according to Warren County Prosecutor David P. Fornshell.
Warren County Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy Tepe sentenced 44-year-old Douglas Gearhart, of Franklin, to four years in prison after a jury found him guilty of felonious assault and two counts of domestic violence in October.
On Feb. 15, Gearhart grabbed his stepdaughter by her head and neck and shoved her into a door, Fornshell said. His wife tried to intervene, and he pulled her to the ground by her hair, causing her to strike her head on the kitchen island. He then forced his wife into the garage, where her children found her semi-conscious beside a puddle of blood. Three of her front teeth were on the garage floor.
Gearhart fled the scene, but police apprehended him. Gearhart was employed as a Montgomery County sheriff deputy at the time of the assault but has since resigned.
A judge ordered Gearhart to pay $5,057.43 to the victim for medical bills.
Fornshell said in a statement Tepe’s sentence is a result of Gearhart’s “failure to accept responsibility for his actions.”
“I share the opinion of our local men and women in blue who are relieved that he is no longer part of the law enforcement community,” Fornshell said in a statement.
