Prosecutors can’t catch a break in their assault case against Kerry Von Reese Cook. Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Edward L. Hogshire granted a mistrial last Wednesday after a juror announced that he knew one of the people involved in the August 2004 domestic dispute at Friendship Court that led to Cook’s arrest. Cook was convicted in May 2006 and sentenced to nine months in prison for resisting arrest during that incident, but the jury in that trial deadlocked on whether Cook also had assaulted two police officers during the arrest.
 Kerry Von Reese Cook was shot by police when he resisted arrest during a domestic disturbance call at Friendship Court in August 2004. First jury deadlock and then juror tainting have set back Cook’s trial for assaulting the officers in that incident. |
It was during that alleged assault that one of the arresting officers shot Cook in the abdomen, rendering him unconscious for three weeks and requiring him to now use a colostomy bag. A special grand jury investigation into the shooting determined that the officers did not use excessive force. But Cook has disagreed with that assessment and has filed a $10 million lawsuit against the city, the Charlottesville Police Department and the two arresting officers.
No hearings have been scheduled in Cook’s civil case yet. After the first mistrial last May, Cook’s attorney, William Rogers of Port Haywood, said they were waiting until after the retrial of the criminal assault charges.
The re-retrial for the police assault has been scheduled for August 9.
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