{"id":795511,"date":"2019-05-06T16:08:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T22:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/man-sentenced-to-13-years-in-prison-for-assault-on-breckenridge-officer\/"},"modified":"2019-05-06T16:08:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T22:08:01","slug":"man-sentenced-to-13-years-in-prison-for-assault-on-breckenridge-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/man-sentenced-to-13-years-in-prison-for-assault-on-breckenridge-officer\/","title":{"rendered":"Man sentenced to 13 years in prison for assault on Breckenridge officer"},"content":{"rendered":"
Nathan Finnegan, 22, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for assaulting a Breckenridge police officer during an early morning confrontation last summer.<\/strong>
Office of the District Attorney 5th District<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nathan Alexander Finnegan, the man convicted of assaulting a Breckenridge police officer last summer, was sentenced to 13 years in prison during a hearing at the Summit County Justice Center Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Finnegan, 22, fled the scene of a car crash while driving inebriated last July, and later assaulted Breckenridge officer Jennifer Kruse<\/a> who found him laying half-naked in the street and attempted to help him. Finnegan was convicted on a charge of second-degree assault<\/a>, along with other crimes, following a trial in March.<\/p>\n

During his sentencing on Monday, Chief Judge Mark Thompson heard arguments from a number of people, including Finnegan and Kruse. District Attorney Bruce Brown kicked things off, arguing for a maximum sentence of 16 years and condemning Finnegan\u2019s attack \u2014 and others like it \u2014 on police officers in the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a point where we have to look at this crime in light of our community,\u201d said Brown. \u201cIn general, there is some position in this community that police officers are punching bags\u2026there\u2019s a need to demonstrate to the community that these acts will not be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown continued to point to Finnegan\u2019s criminal history \u2014 a handful of misdemeanor drug offenses and DUIs \u2014 along with analysis from Finnegan\u2019s pre-sentence investigation and the injuries to Kruse as factors in his argument.<\/p>\n

Kruse spoke next, offering a statement in which she reflected on the impact the assault has had on her and her family over the last year, including her families\u2019 persistent fears that she\u2019ll be harmed again in the line of duty. She also spoke about her own personal fears, and her belief that she was almost killed on the night of the assault.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came very close to becoming another officer killed in the line of duty,\u201d said Kruse, with a number of Breckenridge Police officers in the courtroom in a show of support. \u201cI was left laying on the ground, brutally beaten and bleeding\u2026I feel fortunate to still be alive today and give this statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Jensen, Finnegan\u2019s attorney, pushed back against Brown and Kruse\u2019s assertions that Kruse was almost killed in the confrontation, noting that the jury acquitted Finnegan of the first-degree assault charge. Jensen went on to say that Finnegan was highly motivated to overcome his substance abuse issues, and that he\u2019s already begun working with a counselor to address the problem. Gabriel Robinson-Lynch, a social worker with Mind Springs Health who\u2019s been working with Finnegan, said that he\u2019s made progress since his arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen Mr. Finnegan make considerable progress towards his goals and with his substance abuse,\u201d said Robinson-Lynch, who advocated for a shorter sentence on the grounds it would help in Finnegan\u2019s rehabilitation. \u201cTo impose a long prison sentence and expect he\u2019ll magically be cured of his disease of addiction goes against our fundamental understanding of addiction itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finnegan\u2019s mother, Lora Youngmark, also spoke on her son\u2019s behalf, saying that Finnegan has shown substantial remorse since the assault, and a deep respect for law enforcement agents throughout his life. She noted that while Finnegan has some undesirable personality traits, he\u2019s not a bad person.<\/p>\n

\u201cNathan is a follower, not a leader,\u201d said Youngmark. \u201cHe\u2019s not been evil or hurtful, and he\u2019s always been kind and generous. His stupidity is what lead him here today\u2026He didn\u2019t go out that night to hurt officer Kruse. He wasn\u2019t in his right state of mind. Who lies in the middle of the road? Who goes down the road stripping their clothes off and bleeding? Who asks to be put in a police car?\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Finnegan himself spoke, turning from the podium in a minor breach of decorum to address Kruse directly. In a highly emotional statement, a visibly upset Finnegan offered an apology to Kruse and the community at large.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry to you, this community and everyone who lives here,\u201d said Finnegan. \u201cI\u2019m sorry for what I\u2019ve done to you, and all I ask is one day you\u2019ll read my apology. You saved my life. I greatly appreciate you. You may think that everything out of my mouth is garbage. That\u2019s not true. I\u2019m very sorry, and I mean that with all my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately Judge Thompson felt there were more aggravating factors than mitigating factors in the case, and decided to send a message with a sentence he felt would dissuade further violence against law enforcement agents in the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been a propensity for young men to come into this community, use drugs and use police officers as punching bags,\u201d said Thompson. \u201cIt\u2019s beyond the pale for this court for people to continue taking substances, and going out and assaulting other people. Police officers are there to serve and protect, and circumstances like this are massively inappropriate and unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson sentenced Finnegan to 13 years in prison, and afforded him 290 days of time served. Finnegan was also sentenced to 90 days in jail on the DUI charge to run consecutive with his prison sentence.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nathan Finnegan, 22, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for assaulting a Breckenridge police officer during an early morning confrontation last summer.Office of the District Attorney 5th District Nathan Alexander Finnegan, the man convicted of assaulting a Breckenridge police officer last summer, was sentenced to 13 years in prison during a hearing at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-795511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 06:26:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}