HUNTINGTON -- A Huntington man who was fatally shot by a Huntington Police officer inside a Huntington nightclub early Sunday had several previous encounters with law enforcement.

Joe Jermaine Porter was arrested 20 times on a wide range of charges between August 1998 and his last documented arrest in October 2007, according to Cabell County Magistrate Court records. Four of those arrests involved felony charges, including a drug possession charge in May 1998, fugitive from justice charge in February 2001, conspiracy to inflict injury charge in August 2001 and malicious wounding charge in October 2007.

Information was incomplete Sunday night as to whether Porter was convicted of the drug, fugitive from justice or conspiracy charges. The unlawful wounding charge stemmed from an Oct. 27, 2007, incident in which a man was shot in an alley behind a bar on 4th Avenue. He sustained minor injuries.

The charge against Porter was later dismissed because the alleged victim chose not to prosecute, according to Magistrate Court records.

Porter was indicted by a Cabell County grand jury in January 2002. The grand jury charged him with malicious wounding, conspiracy and battery. Porter pleaded guilty 18 months later in Cabell Circuit Court to charges of battery and failure to appear in court.

Sentencing was delivered by Cabell Circuit Judge Alfred Ferguson. Porter received 12 months in jail on the battery charge and six months for failure to appear. Those punishments ran consecutive, but he received credit for time served.

Herald-Dispatch reporter Curtis Johnson contributed to this report.

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