Courtenay Jernigan, 47, of Bensalem, as seen in her 2019 mugshot.
A former Hatfield Township woman was sentenced to probation on Tuesday after pleading guilty to several charges stemming from a pair of unrelated incidents involving first responders.
Court records indicate that Courtenay Jernigan, 47, of Bensalem, was sentenced to three-and-a-half-years’ probation after entering guilty pleas to misdemeanor counts of DUI, simple assault and resisting arrest, steaming from an incident on Sept. 20, 2019, in which she crashed her vehicle into a metal fence and then assaulted a responding police officer.
Additional charges of possession of a controlled substance, having an open container of alcohol and harassment were dismissed, court records show. The most serious charge — a felony count of aggravated assault — was previously dismissed during Jernigan’s preliminary hearing.
Court records show that Jernigan will also be placed on house arrest for the first five days of her probation sentence.
In addition to the conclusion of the September 2019 case, Jernigan also resolved her charges stemming from an August 2020 incident in Hatfield Township, in which she was arrested for public drunkenness and later kicked a medic who was providing assistance at the scene.
Court records show that Jernigan entered a guilty plea on Tuesday to one count of simple assault in connection with the incident. Additional charges of reckless endangerment, disorderly conduct, harassment and public drunkenness were withdrawn, and a felony count of aggravated assault was previously dismissed at her preliminary hearing.
Jernigan received a sentence of two years’ probation for the guilty plea to simple assault, which will run concurrent to the other three-and-a-half-year sentence. Common Pleas Judge Henry Hilles, who sentenced Jernigan in both cases, also ordered that she comply with the restrictive conditions of probation, as well as any recommended treatment.
Jernigan was previously arrested in December 2011 after she left her 11-day-old daughter in an unheated car in 28-degree weather while she had drinks with friends at their home. She ultimately pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and was sentenced to time-served plus probation, according to a prior report by Tony Di Domizio.
A few years later, Jernigan was again charged endangering the welfare of a child and reckless endangerment after she left her then-5- and 2-year-old children at home unsupervised in a makeshift pen while she went out drinking in January 2014. In that case, investigators said the home was found to be in deplorable condition, with food, filth and trash strewn throughout the residence, according to reports. The toddler was only wearing a diaper at the time the children were found, and attempted to eat a dirty piece of bread off the living room floor, the report states.
To read more on that incident, click here.
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