Hillsboro man sentenced to prison for retaliation

A Hillsboro man was sentenced recently to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to retaliation.

James Allen Freeman, 71, was indicted by a Highland County grand jury in August on charges of having weapons while under disability, a third-degree felony; retaliation, a third-degree felony; aggravated possession of methamphetamine, a fifth-degree felony; and a forfeiture specification. Freeman pleaded guilty to retaliation and the forfeiture specification, with the other two counts dismissed.

According to a bill of particulars, officers of the Highland County Sheriff’s Office responded to Freeman’s home in July after receiving a report about alleged drugs at the home.

While at Freeman’s home, it was alleged that Freeman told officers that if he “had terminal cancer and was given six months or something to live,” a local public official “would be dead.” It was alleged that he later said, “If [the public official] turns up dead, you forget I said that.”

A pistol in Freeman’s possession at the time of the offense was ordered forfeited.

Freeman was sentenced Oct. 27 to a definite determinate term of 18 months in prison, with jail time credit of 21 days. He was admitted into the Correctional Reception Center in Orient on Nov. 1, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.