Phony flatfoot nabbed

Man who impersonated police gets deferred jail

BOWLING GREEN - A former Bowling Green man who said he'd hoped to become a police officer was sentenced yesterday to 30 days in jail for pretending he was one.

Harrison Daman, 26, of Willoughby Hills, Ohio, pleaded guilty in September to abduction, impersonating a peace officer, and carrying a concealed weapon stemming from a Feb. 25 incident outside the Uptown/Downtown bar where he had three young women step out of their car and undergo field sobriety tests.

He was wearing a stocking cap with "Police" on the front at the time. In his pocket, he had a courtesy badge from the Woodmere, Ohio, police department and a folding knife.

"I know that what I did back in February was stupid and illegal and wrong," Daman told Wood County Common Pleas Judge Robert Pollex. "I have no valid excuse for it."

Judge Pollex placed Daman on community control for three years, ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service, undergo both a substance abuse and sex offender evaluation, and follow all recommended treatment. The judge said Daman could take part in the jail's work-release program if he qualified and deferred his 30-day sentence until Jan. 5.

Heather Baker, an assistant Wood County prosecutor, had asked the court to require the substance abuse and sex offender evaluations saying Daman was so intoxicated on the night in question that he could barely remember what he'd done. She said he also had made comments with sexual overtones about the young women to a bouncer at the Uptown/Downtown.

Daman's attorney, Dennis Niermann, said his client has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and working.

"He understands how he got here," he said. "He understands he was drinking alcohol excessively."