Mississippi Highway Patrol Master Sgt. Dinoion “Dino” Stutts is barred from law enforcement for five years after he entered a negotiated plea of guilty to assaulting a Tallahatchie County deputy sheriff in a June 2016 incident.
Stutts, 43, of 5324 Barnacre Road, Sardis, entered the plea Sept. 28 before Circuit Judge Jimmy McClure at the Yalobusha County Courthouse in Water Valley.
Noting that Stutts has never been convicted of a felony, McClure’s order stated “the court is of the opinion that it is in the best interest of the defendant and will serve the interest of justice for an Order of Non-Adjudication to be entered in this matter.”
Under non-adjudication, McClure withheld acceptance of the guilty plea. If Stutts stays out of trouble for the court-ordered period of five years, no conviction for simple assault on a law enforcement officer will appear on his record.
In addition to banning him from participating in law enforcement while under the court order, McClure ordered Stutts to pay a $1,000 fine and court costs.
Had the case gone to trial and he been found guilty by a jury, Stutts faced maximum punishment of five years imprisonment and a $1,000 fine.
Stutts, indicted in February by a Tallahatchie County grand jury, initially entered a plea of not guilty.
The origins of the case trace back to a June 3, 2016, one-vehicle accident on Enid-Teasdale Road near Enid.
Five days later, on June 8, 2016, Deputy Benjamin “Benji” McKinney of the Tallahatchie County Sheriff’s Office filed an affidavit against Stutts with the justice court clerk’s office in Charleston. In that document, McKinney asserted that Stutts had caused bodily injury to him “by grabbing him by his right arm, and slamming him against a car” at the scene of the 2016 accident.
A disagreement reportedly formed over a jurisdictional matter, namely whether the accident occurred on state highway or county road and which law enforcement agency should work the scene.
At a July 28, 2016, probable cause hearing in Panola County, McKinney and fellow Tallahatchie Deputy Jerry “Bubba” Williams II testified that Stutts became physical.
