Posted: 10/4/05
Polus pleads guilty to 4th degree assault; Taylor sentenced
Wayne A. Polus, 48, of La Crescent pled guilty on September 27 to criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree.
He had been charged with third degree criminal sexual conduct related to an August 2004 incident in La Crescent. He pled not guilty and was set to go to trial on the day that he made the plea agreement.
Polus assaulted a woman while she was sleeping on a couch at his parentsí home, where he resides, early on the morning of August 29. His sentencing date had not been set as of September 30.
Taylor sentenced
In other court news, Jack David Taylor, Caledonia, was sentenced on September 26 to one count of violating an order for protection, and one count of making a terroristic threat.
The sentence calls for 120 days in jail; 60 hours of community service; writing two letters of apology to two victims. It prohibits mood-altering chemicals and entering places that sell alcohol. He pled guilty on July 25.
The charges were based on Taylor leaving a message on a personís answering machine on April 18 stating that he was going to hire someone to kill that personís sister.
Taylor was also charged on September 2 with two counts of assault in the fifth degree and one count of false imprisonment, all felonies. His bail was set at $20,000 unconditional and $10,000 conditional. He is in the Goodhue County Jail in Red Wing. He will appear in court for an omnibus hearing on those charges on October 12 at 10 a.m.
Taylor is accused of hitting a 14-year-old boy at Taylorís house on August 27. The boy told police that he had been punched with a closed fist and thrown to the ground. He said he was dragged into the kitchen and thrown against a refrigerator, then thrown into the cellar and locked up for 5-10 minutes. Taylor told police that he hit the boy no more than two times. He said he was unsure of the details because he had been drinking.
Fifth degree assault charges have also been filed against a juvenile in the case.
Hearing continued for Nierling
An omnibus hearing for Charles R. Nierling, 30, that had been set for July 25, September 21, and September 25 was continued again to October 5 at 3 p.m.
Nierling is accused of raping a woman at her boyfriendís house in Eitzen in the early morning hours of May 17. He is now out on bail.
Marijuana case
A court date has been set for one of the two men charged in a marijuana-growing case.
Patrick Daniel Dingley, 37, of Rochester will appear in Third District Court in Caledonia on October 12 at 11:30 a.m. A court date for the other man, Mark Casey Richmond, 37, of Houston, had not been set as of September 30.
The men were charged with four counts of third degree conspiracy to manufacture drugs on September 15. They are accused of growing 286 marijuana plants in three different groves on U.S. Fish and Wildlife land and the Gillette property near the Root River in rural Hokah Township.The sheriffís department has confiscated the plants, a boat belonging to a relative of Richmondís, and a truck. They allegedly accessed the plants by boat.
Authorities were tipped to the pot plot about three weeks ago by someone who stumbled onto it. Officers from the sheriffís department and Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension put up surveillance cameras and also staked out the spot.
The two suspects were confronted on September 15 at a boat launch in La Crosse, then arrested that night. Dingley and Richmond are both free on bail.
There is the possibility of another arrest in the case, county attorney Rick Jackson said on September 30.
Caledonia Argus
314 West Lincoln St.
P.O. Box 227
Caledonia, MN 55921-0227
507/724-3475
E-Mail: editor.argus@ecm-inc.com