Porter sentenced for contempt of court

Terome Porter, an inmate in the Department of Corrections, was sentenced to six month for contempt of court.

Porter had invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to refuse to testify in the trial of attorney Scott Loftis,. He was offered immunity from prosecution and still refused to testify.

His attorney, Brad Wicker, appealed to the judge, saying it was not a flagrant disrespect of the court or the process, but a matter of survival for Porter because of pressures from outside the courtroom. Wicker asked that any sentence run concurrently with Porter’s current sentence in the Department of Corrections.

District Attorney Chris Boring countered that the refusal to testify was a flagrant violation which circumvented justice. He asked for a sentence of six monhths.

Judge Louis Duel said he believed there may have been outside pressures, but Porter had refused to discuss the matter with him and left him with no option but to sentence him to six months for contempt, to run consecutive with his prior sentence.