A Greensboro man who received a $95,000 settlement from the city for his mistreatment during a 2016 arrest surprised court officials Wednesday by rejecting a plea agreement on several assault charges and now could face up to 51 years in prison.
Dejuan Yourse, 38, of 2 Mistywood Court in Greensboro is charged with two counts of assault on a female, assault by strangulation, battery of an unborn child, habitual misdemeanor assault and being a habitual felon for separate incidents on March 4, 2016, and Feb. 10.
On Tuesday Yourse had signed a plea transcript that gave court officials the impression he would take a plea deal offered by prosecutors. That deal would have consolidated his charges to two counts of assault on a female, and he would have been sentenced to 7 to 8 years in prison.
“I want to go to trial, sir,” Yourse told Judge Martin McGee in Guilford County Superior Court.
Guilford County Chief Assistant District Attorney Howard Neumann told McGee he would not offer Yourse another plea deal and would schedule his trial for early December before Judge Stuart Albright. Without the agreement Yourse faces a maximum of 51 years in prison if jurors were to convict him on all charges.
Yourse made headlines after Greensboro police Officer Travis Cole punched Yourse and threw him to the ground on June 17, 2016, during a burglary investigation. Both Yourse and his partner, Officer Charlotte Jackson, resigned following an internal investigation. The incident led to protests by community activists and calls for better police accountability.
The city settled a lawsuit from Yourse for $95,000 on May 4.
But Yourse had pending criminal charges from both before and after the incident involving Cole.
Most recently, Yourse is accused of attacking his girlfriend, who was a month pregnant at the time.
McGee had Neumann read the terms of Yourse’s rejected plea agreement into the record Wednesday morning.
Yourse has an extensive criminal record that includes past convictions of receiving stolen goods, possession of stolen goods, resisting an officer, assault on a female, assault on an officer, financial card fraud, larceny of a motor vehicle , communicating threats and forgery, among other things.
McGee asked Yourse once more if he understood the amount of prison time he could face by rejecting the plea agreement and whether he was sure.
Yourse, dressed in a striped sweater and blue jeans, stood silent for a minute with his attorney Jason Keith. Yourse’s head began to shake subtly back and forth before he said: “I want to proceed with a trial.”
McGee banned Yourse from contacting any prosecuting witnesses before adjourning his case for the day.
Yourse walked out of the courtroom and kept telling his attorney that what happened in the courtroom was “bullshit.”
He and Keith declined comment.
Friggin' idiot.