A Lauderdale County man in prison for assaulting another man with a pipe lost his bid for parole recently, authorities said.
The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected the parole request from Roger Keith Thompson, 56, said Terry Abbott, spokesman for the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles.
Thompson is serving a 20-year sentence for second-degree assault, Abbott said. He has served nine years, three months of the sentence.
He was sentenced in 2011 in an incident in which he beat Donnie Poole with a metal pipe and left him for dead, Abbott said. In addition, Thompson had a history of arrests.
“Thompson previously had been sentenced to 15 years for another second-degree assault, this one in 2008, and a drug possession case in Lauderdale County,” Abbott said. “Thompson was first sent to prison in 1997 for second-degree forgery.”
Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly said Thompson’s next parole hearing is set for 2024.
Connolly said he and someone representing a victim’s rights group called Victims of Crime and Leniency spoke at the hearing.
“We believe he would pose a danger to the community,” Connolly said, adding Poole expressed relief when founding out parole had been denied.
“The victim is still suffering from the effects of the assault,” he said.
Thompson is in the Red Eagle Work Center, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.
“The victim in the case is in poor health and was unable to attend the hearing so we went down and expressed his concern about Thompson being released,” Connolly said. “We believe he would pose a danger to the community.”
