A Cabot man was sentenced Monday to 15 years in federal prison for shooting through a door and injuring members of the Jacksonville Police Department's Special Response Team as they assisted federal agents in executing a narcotics search warrant early Nov. 22, 2013.
Mark Lyle Dodson, 54, pleaded guilty May 12 to two charges -- assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence -- in connection with a shootout that occurred during an early morning raid at the home at 2327 Backbone Road that he shared with Mary Olszak, 53.
The negotiated plea called for a 15-year sentence that was subject to approval by U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes, who accepted it on Monday after reviewing the results of a presentence investigation. If Holmes hadn't accepted the plea, Dodson would have been permitted to withdraw it and go to trial on those charges and five other charges that were ultimately dismissed as part of the plea bargain.
Dodson and Olszak were indicted after the shootout, which occurred when uniformed Special Response Team members busted down the home's front door at 6:20 a.m., just before sunrise, yelling "Police! Search warrant!"
Olszak wasn't home, but prosecutors said Dodson barricaded himself in an interior bedroom and fired a 16-gauge shotgun -- twice -- through a closed bedroom door when the officers tried to enter. The officers were assisting Drug Enforcement Administration agents, who were in search of methamphetamine that the couple was suspected of selling out of the house.
Pellets from the blasts struck three of the team members, causing one of them, Jerry Keefer, to suffer an arm injury. The blasts also prompted return gunfire that left Dodson injured. Prosecutors noted that minutes later, members of the team at which he had just fired gave him life-saving aid as he sat bleeding on the bedroom floor.
Keefer was treated and released that day, while the other two officers, John Alberson and Christopher Schultz, didn't require treatment for their injuries. Dodson, who was hit three or four times in the arms and legs, was hospitalized for several days and was arrested upon his release.
Dodson and Olszak were accused of running a methamphetamine operation out of the home. Olszak pleaded guilty Aug. 1, 2014, to distributing 3.7 grams of methamphetamine and was sentenced June 1 to time served in jail since her arrest, as well as three years' probation.
During Dodson's plea hearing in May, the team's commander, Lt. Brett Hibbs, testified that officers used flash-bang devices to give them an advantage because the residents were known to keep a loaded gun behind the front door. Hibbs said narcotics officers told him that every time the residents heard a noise outside, "they went out and fired blindly into the woods."
Holmes rejected defense attorneys' arguments that the devices shouldn't have been used. He said they are considered appropriate when officers serving a warrant think they might be in danger.
The investigation was conducted by the DEA's Little Rock field office, the Jacksonville Police Department and the Pulaski County sheriff's office. It was prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorneys Alexander Morgan and Anne Gardner. Defense attorneys were the father and son team of Hubert Alexander and Christian Alexander, both of Jacksonville.
Metro on 11/12/2015