Former deputy cleared of 3 felony charges

A jury found a former Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Deputy not guilty on three out of the four felony perjury charges against him.

After a four-day jury trial last week in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery, Sean Christopher Henry, 44, was cleared of three out of the four felony perjury charges against him.

It took the jury about five hours to make a decision, after both the state and defense rested their cases. A sentencing hearing will take place after a pre-sentence investigation has been completed.

The charge Henry was found guilty of stems from on incident that occurred on Sept. 5, 2014.

According to court documents, this particular charge occurred during a traffic stop. It was proven that Henry’s statements about this particular arrest were false and fabricated based on the investigation conducted in the matter. After this was discovered, Sweetwater County Sheriff at the time Richard Haskell, did present Henry with at least two notices of intent to impose disciplinary action. To which, Henry responded with a letter explaining his actions.

During this particular case, Henry claimed the person he was arrested was under the influence of marijuana or cocaine because he saw green residue and burns on the suspects tongue.

Later, a sheriff’s office corporal, Steven Powell, said when he was visiting with the suspect at Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County, the suspect was uncooperative. Powell said the suspect did appear to be under the influence of something, but he could not determine what the cause of the impairment was due to the brief and incomplete evaluation.

Henry could face a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a maximum fine of $5,000.