Cop beating suspect indicted

Published 10:38 pm Monday, September 24, 2012

The suspect in the May 19 attack on a Suffolk police officer was indicted by a Suffolk grand jury on a host of felony charges Monday.

Joe Louis Staton, 43, will be arraigned Oct. 3 on the charges, which include attempted capital murder of a law enforcement officer, aggravated malicious wounding, wounding in the commission of a felony, malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer, attempt to disarm a law enforcement officer, grand larceny from a person, forgery of a public record, uttering of a forged public record, statutory burglary, felony third offense larceny and grand larceny of a motor vehicle.

Staton is accused of beating Officer James Winslow after the officer stopped a stolen vehicle in the 1000 block of Nansemond Parkway. Staton was allegedly driving the vehicle, and according to police, he immediately bailed from the vehicle when it stopped and ran into the woods along the roadway. Winslow then began chasing him on foot.

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Dispatchers soon lost radio contact with Winslow, though. Other officers arriving to assist found him unconscious in the woods with traumatic injuries on his head, face, shoulder and arm.

After a seven-hour manhunt that involved law enforcement officers from four different agencies, Staton was captured behind a house on Nansemond Parkway.

Winslow required emergency surgery and a two-week hospital stay, plus extended recovery at home.

The remainder of Monday’s grand jury indictments will be reported later this week.