Published: December 12, 2006 10:39 pm      

MacArthur man indicted for assaulting federal officer

Beckley resident sentenced on cocaine and firearm charges

A MacArthur man was charged with three counts of assault on a federal officer after a grand jury indictment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Ronald J. Collins Jr., 26, of MacArthur faces 36 years in prison and/or a $750,000 fine if convicted, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of West Virginia. Collins was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury convening in Charleston.

Collins is charged with forcibly assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding, intimidating and interfering with an officer of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Police Service while the officer was performing his official duties in Beckley Nov. 18, according to the indictment.

On Nov. 29, and also in Beckley, Collins is accused of doing the same to a chief and a lieutenant of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Police Service, this time inflicting bodily injury upon the chief, according to the indictment.

A Beckley man was also sentenced Monday on federal cocaine and firearm charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Robert Hurte II, 25, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for distribution of cocaine and for being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Hurte pled guilty in August, admitting that on April 3, he sold 1.52 grams of cocaine to a confidential informant, and that on April 14, he possessed firearms after being prohibited from doing so by virtue of his convictions in Raleigh County Circuit Court of aggravated robbery and possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, the release stated.

The West Virginia State Police’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations conducted the investigation, the release stated. Assistant U.S. Attorney John L. File handled the prosecution.

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