UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — A drug suspect who sped away with a Prince George’s County police officer entangled in his car door has pleaded guilty to the July 2015 incident.
Danny Lee Harvell, 27, of Temple Hills, entered a guilty plea Tuesday to first-degree assault in Prince George’s County Circuit Court and an earlier case of intent to distribute marijuana.
Sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 25. Circuit Judge Sean Wallace told Harvell he would sentence him to between three and four years in prison.
On July 15, 2015 police received a tip about a suspected drug house in District Heights. Officers on patrol noticed Harvell sitting in his car near the home.
After smelling marijuana, Prince George’s County police officer Michael O’Connell asked Harvell to step out of the car, but instead Harvell reached toward the backseat.
Prosecutors said the officer reached for Harvell through the window, concerned he might have a weapon.
With O’Connell partially inside the car, Harvell sped off, but his seat belt got entangled with the officer’s arm.
The officer was dragged approximately 100 yards before the car crashed into a tree. Harvell took off on foot.
O’Connell’s thigh bone was broken, and he had to undergo surgery.
During the plea hearing O’Connell sat in the front row, behind the prosecution table.
He has nerve damage in an arm that is still healing, as well as back issues, but has returned to full duty.
O’Connell is expected to give a victim impact statement during Harvell’s sentencing, prosecution spokesperson John Erzen said outside the courthouse.
Harvell also pleaded guilty to a April 2015 case. He admitted driving 85 miles an hour on Suitland Parkway, and throwing a bag of marijuana out the window as officers followed him.
After the hearing, Harvell’s attorney Louis Martucci told reporters that he suggested his client accept the plea because he faced a maximum of 25 years in prison for the assault charge and five years for the drug count.
Martucci said Harvell did not have a weapon in his car and fled because he was afraid.
Erzen acknowledged Harvell did not have a gun but said Harvell needed to be held responsible for injuring the officer.
“Whether he intended for that to happen or not, it was an attack on a police officer who was going about his business to keep this community safe,” he said.
