Man accused of pointing gun at police in Waynesburg acquitted of aggravated assault
WAYNESBURG – A Franklin Township man accused of pointing a gun at two police officers in Waynesburg last June was acquitted on the most serious charge during a jury trial last week.
The Greene County jury found Jerry Lee Cooke not guilty of felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor reckless endangerment, but convicted him of terroristic threats and one charge of driving under the influence of alcohol following the one-day trial Thursday. He was acquitted of a second charge of driving under the influence.
Officers with Greene County Drug Task Force and the state attorney general’s office were working a detail in the borough June 25 when Cooke approached them in his truck and began shouting obscenities at them, telling the officers, who were in plain clothes, to get out of the road. The officers claimed he then pointed a gun at them before they identified themselves as police, according to court documents.
Cooke drove away and was stopped by a Greene County sheriff’s deputy. He was arrested and police seized two guns from his truck. Cooke, 50, of 171 Champion Drive, will be sentenced by Greene County President Judge Farley Toothman.