From The Times Tribune/Timothy Wyatt
A jury trial has been set for a London man who allegedly took his shirt off before fighting police in an attempt to resist arrest during a July 2018 incident.
Robert Dwayne Kazee, 40, appeared in Laurel Circuit Court for a pretrial conference Thursday, where a trial date was set in the case for April 17. A final pretrial conference was also scheduled for April 4.
On July 23, 2018, Laurel County Sheriff’s Deputy Taylor McDaniel was dispatched to a location on Green Acres Road to investigate a complaint of a man walking down the road causing a disturbance in the area by screaming. When McDaniel arrived at the scene and located Kazee, McDaniel told Kazee he was under arrest, to which Kazee allegedly responded by taking off his shirt and beginning to fight McDaniel.
Following a physical altercation between the two, McDaniel was eventually able to get Kazee into the back of his police cruiser, but on the way to the jail, Kazee allegedly began kicking the windows of the vehicle. McDaniel was forced to stop and again subdue Kazee.
Another officer was also allegedly assaulted during the incident.
Kazee was indicted in September 2018 by a Laurel County grand jury, formally charging him with two counts of third-degree assault, public intoxication, resisting arrest, second-degree disorderly conduct and first-degree persistent felony offender.
Kazee currently remains jailed in the Laurel County Correctional Facility under a $15,000 cash bond.