Local News in Brief : Man Gets 3 Years in Jail in Attack on 2 Officers
A Lancaster man who pleaded no contest to attacking two Los Angeles police officers with a knife was sentenced Friday to three years in prison.
San Fernando Superior Court Judge Howard J. Schwab imposed the sentence on James V. Morris, 31, in the Jan. 9 attack on Officers Paul Nelson and Michael Laggert. They had stopped Morris for erratic driving in the 13200 block of Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima about 3 p.m., Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold S. Lynn said.
Morris got out of his pickup truck holding a knife and tried to stab the officers, a probation report said. They disarmed him after a struggle, the report said. Both were treated for minor injuries at a hospital.
Under a May 19 plea-bargain agreement, Morris pleaded no contest to two counts of assaulting a peace officer. Charges of attempted murder, assault and possession of methamphetamine were dismissed.
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