Brooks jailed for attacking his girlfriend
After being wrongfully imprisoned two years ago when his girlfriend cried wolf, an abusive boyfriend was sentenced to 150 days behind bars for attacking the same woman who had him arrested on trumped up charges in the first place.
The defendant, Stanley Brooks, 31, entered a guilty plea to the charge of aggravated assault and was directed to serve 150 days with the balance of the remaining four-year sentence to be served on supervised probation. He must also perform 24 hours public service work and was warned to stay away from the victim, Tina Melson.
It was Melson, who, in 2002, had to serve 48 hours in jail herself for filing a false warrant against Brooks. On that occasion, Melson was found in contempt of court when she admitted, in open court before General Sessions Judge Larry Ross, she had lied in an arrest warrant against Brooks.
She had claimed her boyfriend struck her, banged her head in a stove, pulled her hair and slapped her. Melson did not reveal why she made the false charges. Her case along with some other false allegations which led to wrongful arrests, sparked a policy change.
The new policy allows judicial commissioners to issue summonses to court rather than arrest warrants. However, officers always reserve the right to bring charges in domestic violence cases, even if the alleged victim does not want to prosecute, if they find evidence a crime has been committed.
Melson’s most recent charges, brought in late 2004 against Brooks, proved to be legitimate as her boyfriend entered a guilty plea to them Wednesday before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley. In the recent incident Melson said Brooks choked her with a dog chain and hit her on her feet with a stick. Officers reported seeing evidence of injury on Melson’s person at the time of the report.