Crime & Safety

Two Local Men Plead Guilty to Assault at High School

Apple Valley resident Richard Gene Arellano, 20, and Joshua Phillip Hamilton, a 19-year-old from Rosemount received minimal sentences for the assault, which occurred in February of 2012.

Two men who jumped a fellow classmate at a local high school were given a bit of a reprieve by the courts.

Apple Valley resident Richard Gene Arellano, 20, and Joshua Phillip Hamilton, a 19-year-old from Rosemount were implicated in the attack, which occurred at an unnamed high school on Feb. 24, 2012. 

According to the original criminal complaint, the victim told officers that he had been in the art room when Hamilton and Arellano walked in and confronted him. Hamilton said, “What’s up, [expletive]?,” told the victim to meet him after school and then began punching him. 

Hamilton pushed the victim to the ground, at which point both Hamilton and Arellano began to punch him in the body and the face. The victim's left pinkie was fractured during the assault.

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Arellano and Hamilton were charged with third-degree assault resulting in substantial bodily harm, a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The two both pleaded guilty to the charges. In return they were convicted of a gross misdemeanor, rather than a felony offense. In Hamilton's case, Judge Karen Asphaug found that the "specific facts of the case are less severe than   the typical assail tin the third degree" and noted that he appeared to be genuinely remorseful. 

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Likewise, the court determined that Arellano was amenable to treatment, had shown remorse and accepted responsibility.

On July 19. Judge Richard Spicer imposed two years probation on Arellano. Spicer also sentenced Arellano to 365 days of confinement in the Dakota County Jail, though he stayed all but 30. Likewise, Spicer fined Arellano $3,000 but stayed $2,950 of the amount.

On Aug. 13, Asphaug sentenced Hamilton to 365 days in jail, but stayed all but only two days and gave Hamilton credit for two days already served, which means that Hamilton will see no further confinement. She also sentenced Hamilton to two years of probation, a $150 fine and 15 days of community service. 

Both men will have to pay restitution, attend anger management classes and subject themselves to treatment of some kind.


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