A Marion County man, 62-year-old Cullen Hemphill of Summit, has been sentenced to a year of supervised probation following a domestic disturbance in April in which he is alleged to have threatened his wife with waterboading.The sentence came last Wednesday in Marion County Circuit Court. Following a negotiated plea to a charge of harassment, felony counts of criminal use of a weapon, aggravated assault on a family or household member, terroristic threatening and possession of a Schedule I or II controlled substance, along with misdemeanor counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and a Schedule VI controlled substance nolle prossed or dismissed.According to the probable cause affidavit, law enforcement was dispatched to a domestic disturbance at a residence in Summit with weapons involved. Upon arrival, Hemphill’s wife was taking shelter inside a truck parked in the driveway of the residence, and she appeared to be extremely scared.
The woman told the deputy Hemphill was inside the residence armed with a pistol. She said he had become violent and threatened her with waterboarding. In addition, he allegedly pointed a .9mm pistol at her, while stating he was going to drag her by her hair to the bathtub and kill her.
When backup officers arrived, Hemphill complied with orders to exit the residence and was handcuffed without further incident. During a search of the Summit man, officers located .58 grams of marijuana in a small prescription pill container.
Hemphill allegedly told officers he was suicidal and had pointed a weapon at several people earlier in the night. Once in the patrol unit, he began kicking and yelling, briefly entering a hysterical state.
A search of the residence revealed a .20 gauge sawed-off shotgun under the blankets on a bed in the living room and a .9mm semi-automatic handgun under the mattress. While being booked into the Marion County Detention Center, a jailer located a small bag of a white crystal substance, suspected to be methamphetamine, in Hemphill’s wallet.
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