Avon man receives 4 years probation after 11 months in jail awaiting sentencing for assault of officer
After nearly a year of waiting in jail to be sentenced, Avon resident Mark Goodban on Monday learned that he will have to serve four years of probation for assaulting a peace officer in June of 2022.
A jury on June 22 found Goodban guilty of second-degree assault on a peace officer, a class-4 felony; violation of a civil protection order, a class-2 misdemeanor; and disorderly conduct, a petty offense.
Sentencing was scheduled for September, but in August Goodban was accused of being not competent to understand the court proceedings moving forward, a charge which wasn’t reversed until this month, resulting in an elongated jail stay for Goodban while he awaited sentencing.
Assistant District Attorney Joe Kirwan recommended Goodban serve the maximum sentence of eight years.
In issuing the sentence, District Judge Jonathan Shamis referenced Goodban’s time served in his ruling.
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“I am giving you an opportunity to serve no further time in custody,” Shamis told Goodban.
But Shamis also imposed and suspended an automatic incarceration of three years on Goodban if he violates his probation.
Repeat offenses
Goodban has been in jail since June 3, 2023, after being charged with harassment, intimidating a witness, placing a victim in fear and violating a protection order on May 9, 2023.
At that time, Goodban was awaiting trial for the offenses to which he was sentenced on Monday. That trial was the result of a June 19, 2022, incident in which police were called to Goodban’s residence complex after a neighbor accused him of banging on their adjoining walls and yelling racial slurs. Avon Police Officer John Mackey arrived on the scene and determined that Goodban had violated an already existing protection order that his neighbor had against him.
In attempting to arrest him, Mackey said Goodban “lifted his left leg and struck me in the right leg, just below my knee.”
Goodban was also accused of violation of protection order offenses on June 6, 2022, Aug. 16, 2022 and Aug. 19, 2022. The incidents involve alleged altercations between Goodban and his neighbors. Goodban is also the defendant in an ongoing civil case involving his HOA.
If Goodban can post bond on his other alleged offenses, he won’t be able to return to his Avon property due to his May 9, 2023 case, said his attorney, Sean McCarthy.
The protection order against Goodban had been restricted “to the point where Mr. Goodban was not able to reside in his residence and comply with the protection order at the same time,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said Goodban should be awarded the 352-day pre-sentence confinement credit and asked that the court sentence Goodban to probation.
“Obviously since he’s been convicted of a felony, if we’re back in front of the court on a probation revocation, then he’s subject to Department of Corrections if his probation is revoked,” McCarthy said.
Contempt of court
As Kirwan argued on behalf of a full sentence for Goodban at Monday’s hearing, Goodban interrupted Kirwan frequently and, after several warnings, was escorted out of court by law enforcement and held in contempt of court by Shamis.
Kirwan said Goodban has exhibited similar behavior dating back to 1997 when he received charges of harassment for obscene language. He was also charged with disorderly conduct in 2006 for an offensive gesture and two counts of harassment in 2013, Kirwan said, but those cases were dismissed.
Kirwan said Goodban’s behavior escalated in 2020 when he was charged with menacing and harassment and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. Kirwan said Goodban was charged with felony menacing twice in 2021, as well.
“It seems extreme, but I think Mr. Goodban’s behavior deserves this — the people are asking the court to impose the maximum 8 years in the Department of Corrections on count one, assault in the second degree,” Kirwan said.
“Mr. Goodban’s behavior and explanations as to what happened seem to mirror someone who is a current candidate for president of the United States, I don’t know whether that individual has borrowed those arguments from Mr. Goodban, or Mr. Goodban has followed the direction of that individual,” Kirwan said.
Goodban was allowed back in the courtroom to hear the ruling from Shamis.
Shamis told Goodban the case was a result of Goodban becoming very upset, and the court would consider his mental health issues.
“The facts of the incident were mitigated insofar as it sounds as if you were very upset in your apartment and you were being very loud in your apartment to a point where your neighbors heard you, and the jury concluded that that interaction constituted a violation of the protection order,” Shamis said.
When the Avon Police Department showed up to arrest Goodban for that crime, he was “not particularly accepting of those events,” Shamis said.
“In terms of what should happen for that behavior, the court is also mindful that your mental health issues were and are apparent to the court,” Shamis said.
‘Great faith’ in probation
The case wraps up a year’s worth of every-other-month visits from Goodban to Shamis’ courtroom, with Shamis hearing long testimonies following frequent interruptions from Goodban.
Goodban said his interruptions in court are a symptom of his hyperthyroidism.
“I have a thyroid disorder which makes me very hyper and you’re actually getting the hyperness out of it right now,” Goodban told Shamis.
Shamis suggested Goodban may have had a traumatic brain injury in his past and asked that a neurocongnitive evaluation be considered as an assessment to determine if so.
“My gut tells me you’ve had some historical TBI that has not been diagnosed that might explain your outbursts,” Shamis told Goodban.
Shamis said if he were to examine only the facts of the case, Goodban might have already served a longer sentence than appropriate.
But in presiding over the case, Shamis said Goodban’s behavior in court had demonstrated to him that Goodban has challenges in following rules, telling Goodban “your anger sometimes co-ops your ability to maintain your control, and that is where the court is concerned as that presents a community safety risk.”
Shamis said a pre-sentence investigation on Goodban from the 5th Judicial District probation office concluded that Goodban appears to need mental health or psychiatric services, and he has had success in the past while on probation.
“You need support to engage in services, and the Department of Corrections will not be able to provide those services that you need for stability,” Shamis told Goodban, quoting from the pre-sentence investigation.
Shamis said he was putting “great faith” in the pre-sentence investigation in sentencing Goodban to probation, but as a hedge on those recommendations, he also imposed a suspended sentence of three years in jail on Goodban if he commits another crime at any point within his four-year probation.
“I hope you will never serve that,” Shamis said. “But that is the mechanism I’m choosing to use. But I’d rather have you work with probation, and be successful.”
