PLATTE CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City, Missouri, man will spend the next 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting a Parkville police officer and resisting arrest.
Demario R. Bello, 24, pleaded guilty in May to seriously injuring Parkville Police Captain Jon Jordan by dragging him with his car in an attempt to avoid being arrested for outstanding municipal warrants. Platte County Judge Abe Shafer sentenced Bello to 12 years in prison for assaulting the officer and three years in prison for resisting arrest. He ordered those sentences to run consecutively to one another.
Shafer also sentenced Bello to three years in prison for possession of cocaine, to be served concurrently with the other sentences, prosecutors said.
According to court documents, Bello was stopped by a Parkville police officer on the evening of July 31, 2011, for driving with expired license plates. A computer check also revealed warrants from Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas, for Bello, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said that the officer called for back-up, and Captain Jordan responded. Bello told the officer his name was Caylon Bello, not Demario Bello, and said he did not have anything with his name on it. The officer then searched the car and located an ID card with Bello`s name and photo.
The officer returned to his patrol vehicle to write a ticket, and Jordan remained behind Bello`s vehicle with Bello, who then tried to get into the car in an attempt to flee. Jordan struggled with Bello as Bello got into the driver`s seat and accelerated abruptly. Jordan was then dragged by the car until it struck a pole.
Bello then fled from the car and ran into a nearby wooded area, where he was later located by police and taken into custody.
According to prosecutors, when officers searched Bello`s vehicle they found a plastic baggie containing cocaine. Bello was also driving while his license was suspended.
Prosecutors said that as a result of being dragged by the vehicle, Jordan sustained multiple serious injuries, including a head injury, which he still suffers from today. He has not been able to return to active duty with the police department.