‘Incredibly Manipulative’ Bryan Loveland Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison After Repeat Contempt

That changed today when Circuit Judge Terence Perkins sentenced him to four years followed by two years in probation. Loveland had testified, often tearfully, about his depression, his drinking, his brother’s suicide in November, his own attempted suicide and getting baker Acted in June 2021 as he spoke from a remote link at the Flagler County jail, where he’s been incarcerated since the end of June. But the judge didn’t buy it, going instead with Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark’s latest assessment of the 42 year old.

“Mr. Loveland is incredibly manipulative,” Clark told the judge. “He literally tried to weasel his way out of his violation by having his wife doctor a court document in the hopes that it would trick me and trick you, so that we would dismiss his violation. To me that is not somebody that can be placed on supervision. I don’t think there’s any possible thing you could fashion that can guarantee that Mr. Loveland is going to abide by your court orders because frankly, if he doesn’t agree with them, he’s not going to do them. He’s just not. And he’s going to lie about it, and do anything he can to weasel his way out of any conditions you place on him. I think the only appropriate sentence is prison. I advocated from that for that very early on.”

Back in 2017, after initially facing two second-degree felony charges over his abuse of the 12-year-old, the State Attorney’s Office filed one of the two charges against him. An injunction was in effect, forbidding him from contacting the victim or her mother. He violated it while on bond and was rearrested, then pleaded in 2018 to five years on probation–to a reduced charge of felony child abuse. The reduced charge enabled him to avoid getting branded a sex offender.




He then violated his probation when he was in New Jersey. His former girlfriend begged the court to give him a break. “I can not sit here and watch Bryan be punished for things that were a direct result of my sometimes vindictive actions, in an unknown hormonal Imbalance while not yet knowing I was pregnant,” she wrote. “I have already contacted prosecutor Melissa Clark in reference to some of the charges, clarifying some of the Incorrect and misinformation I had originally provided her. Particularly the incident of him possibly being alone with my at the time, underage daughters.” The girls she was referring to, 9 and 17, are not connected to the original 2017 case. “He was in fact not alone with them. I later found out that my 23yr old son was home during the 4 hours Bryan was there.” She called him “whole heartedly a wonderful person.”

He was sentenced to a year in jail on charges of violating his pre-trial release conditions and violating an injunction, a year-long sentence starting last June 29. But that was separate from the probation violation charge he was being sentenced on today. This morning he testified that he attempted to kill himself not long before the sentence started.

At today’s hearing, he testified that he’d had a drug and alcohol problem for years, and was in desperate need of treatment–with a treatment option lined up, assuming he was not imprisoned. His attorney, Britney Soles, argued the point, lobbing him the sort of questions that would elicit servile responses:

“How does it make you feel knowing that you may have an opportunity to be in the Phoenix House?” his attorney asked.

“It excites me. After my experience with my brother especially,” Loveland said. “My main focus is getting help. On my prior violations, I appreciated everything that my attorneys had done for me, but I asked both of them if they can assist me with getting into treatment. I knew that I had problems and that I needed help. Unfortunately they persuaded me to just allow them to get put back on probation.”

“So you think the Phoenix House would give you that tool to be in a better mental health state to make better choices?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Loveland said. “They focus on mental health, as well as substance abuse.”




But Clark had outlined the number of times Loveland had violated conditions of various lenient judgments. She had shown a document from a treatment facility that contradicted his claims about drinking or drugs. And she had played phone conversations recorded at the jail between him and his girlfriend (the calls are always recorded) and showed the document they had doctored to deceive the court about the timing of one of his conditions.

To keep Loveland from prison, the judge would have had to justify a “downward departure” from the required sentencing guidelines. He said there was no such justification. Perkins cited “a pervasive and extensive manipulation by the defendant of the court system in direct violation of existing court orders. And again, both a tampering with a witness–that is, the victim–violation of pre trial orders, and violations of the court’s injunctions. I just find that an incarcerated sentence followed by that additional probation would be necessary. If Mr. Loveland wants the mental health treatment or obviously the substance abuse treatment, that would be something he can take up with probation.”

Perkins sentenced him to four years on the charge of tampering with evidence or a witness. He will get some credit for time served.