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State Supreme Court upholds guilty verdict for Joel Mejia

The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed a guilty verdict on Friday for a man who had argued there wasn’t enough evidence for a judge to find him guilty of simple assault.

Joel Mejia, 35, had originally been charged with Class C felony aggravated assault after an argument with his roommates in New Town. That charge was later reduced to Class B misdemeanor simple assault and Judge Richard Hagar found him guilty during a bench trial on May 7.

Mejia’s defense attorney, Caitlyn Pierson, had argued that there was not enough evidence to find Mejia guilty, that the state didn’t turn over evidence Mejia’s prior attorney had requested, and both of the alleged victims had ties to the New Town police department and the investigation should have been conducted by another agency as Mejia had requested.

The state had argued there was sufficient evidence to find Mejia guilty and the district court wasn’t required to make a finding that Mejia was not acting in self defense. Mountrail County State’s Attorney Wade Enget also wrote that the investigating officers were not influenced by any ties to the alleged victims and the arresting officer detained Mejia because the alleged victim’s injuries were the more significant.

The Supreme Court agreed with the state’s position.

According to court documents, the dispute began because his roommate’s dog had defecated outside Mejia’s bedroom door. Mejia reportedly punched and kicked one of his roommates and broke the man’s tooth. Mejia claimed he had acted in self defense.

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