Ex-cop asks top court to review 'too light' ruling

DES MOINES — A former Des Moines police officer is asking the United States Supreme Court to review a ruling that his 20-month prison sentence for an excessive force conviction was too light.

Jurors convicted Mersed Dautovic in 2012 on the excessive force charge stemming from an attack on Octavius Bonds in Sept. 2008. Witnesses at trial said Dautovic pepper-sprayed and hit Bonds with a baton during a traffic stop on Southeast 14th Street, leaving a large gash on his head. He was fired from the department for his actions.

Dautovic, 31, served a 20-month federal prison sentence and was released in January. However, a panel of three judges on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the sentence in August. The judges ruled the sentence was too lenient due to the seriousness of Bonds' injuries.

The ruling also noted Dautovic lied about the circumstances of the attack on a police report and in court.

"The district court imposed a substantively unreasonable sentence in this case," Judge Roger Wollman wrote in the ruling. "Dautovic's offense conduct was egregious. A police officer beat an innocent victim with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury and permanent physical damage."

Sentencing guidelines allowed U.S. District Judge John A. Jarvey to give Dautovic up to 14 years in prison, according to the August ruling. Jarvey gave the former officer significantly less time because he had no prior criminal convictions.

Des Moines defense attorney J. Keith Rigg filed a petition for a writ of certiorari on Dec. 18 asking the supreme court to review the ruling. The court receives more than 7,000 petitions yearly and usually accepts between 100 and 150 cases.

Dautovic will face the possibility of returning to prison after a new sentencing hearing if the court doesn't review the case, Rigg said. He's scheduled to finish his sentence in January after a one-year supervised release term is over.

It's "unusual" for a defendant to have to go back to prison after completing an entire sentence, Rigg said.

"It's a possibility," he said. "He will have presumably completely finished his sentence. Not only the prison time, but the supervised release as well."

Dautovic's case went to the appeals court for oral arguments in December 2013 at the urging of prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa who appealed the sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Krickbaum argued the case was a "rare exception" where a defendant should get more prison time.

Dautovic and his partner, John Mailander, hit Bonds with their batons after pulling him over while the two were working off-duty. Witnesses at the trial testified that he was not trying to resist the officers.

Rigg said he expects the court will decide whether to accept the case sometime during its current term. The court typically ends each term in late June.