Warren Circuit Judge J.B. Hines

Two months after a jury convicted him of impersonating a peace officer, Robert Sharp was acquitted Friday by Warren Circuit Judge J.B. Hines, who ruled that the prosecution did not prove every element of the offense at Sharp’s trial.

Sharp, 37, faced a sentence of a year in prison and had already spent 10 days in jail after his trial when Warren Circuit Judge J.B. Hines granted him bond in March after Sharp’s attorney, Ken Meredith, filed a motion for acquittal notwithstanding the jury’s verdict.

On Friday, Hines granted the motion to acquit, issuing an eight-page ruling in which he said “this case ought not to have reached the jury” due to a lack of evidence that Sharp intended to harm the two alleged victims in the case through their reliance on his false authority.

The criminal charge stemmed from an investigation by the Bowling Green Police Department of a Sept. 28, 2022, incident in which Sharp was driving down Cardinal Way and stopped to offer candy to two 11-year-old girls who were walking home from school.

At trial, the girls testified that they hesitated for a moment, during which Sharp reassured them that he was a police officer.

The girls said that Sharp appeared to be driving in what looked to them like a police car and that he showed them a badge.

Sharp testified that he told the girls he was a former police officer, that he was out campaigning for election as a Warren County constable and was wearing his work uniform from his job with a private security firm.

While Hines said a jury could have reasonably found that Sharp was pretending to be a police officer based on the girls’ testimony, the judge ruled that Warren County Commonwealth’s Attorney Kori Beck Bumgarner failed to prove that Sharp did so with the intent to harm the two girls.

“The Commonwealth argued at trial … that the girls were prejudiced because they no longer felt safe walking home from school without an adult. However, no evidence was presented to suggest that (Sharp) intended them any harm as is required under the statute,” Hines said in his ruling. “There were no allegations that he said anything frightening, reached for them or asked them to get in the car … There was also no evidence found among his possessions to suggest he had planned to do anything to or with these girls.”

Reached by the Daily News, Bumgarner said she “respectfully disagreed” with the court’s ruling.

“I remain grateful for the dedication of law enforcement and the work of the jury throughout the entire case,” Bumgarner said.

Hines also noted in his ruling of unspecified “extradjudicial statements through social media and other public statements” regarding the case that the judge interpreted as an attempt by Bumgarner to influence the court.

“The implication in these extrajudicial statements is that the court is in derogation of its duty to the legal system unless (Sharp) is committed to the Department of Corrections for the one-year recommendation without regard to certain required findings,” Hines said in his ruling. “The extrajudicial statements imply that there is ‘something wrong’ with our legal system and the judge if any action is taken other than what is demanded by the Commonwealth’s Attorney.”

While researching the charge, Hines also said he discovered an active lawsuit Sharp filed against the city police department and BGPD Officers Stephen Irvin and Joshua Hughes in which he alleges false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and false affidavit of complaint and lying under oath.

The suit is pending in U.S. District Court, and Hines noted that the law office representing the officers against Sharp employs Bumgarner’s husband, Kyle Bumgarner, who is not involved in the civil case.

Hines said that this relationship was not disclosed to the court.

“The failure to make this disclosure heightens the court’s concern regarding untimely disclosure of discovery and breaches in courtroom decorum during the trial,” Hines said in his ruling.

All action in the federal lawsuit has been stayed pending the outcome of the criminal case.

A sentencing hearing set for Tuesday was cancelled.