A Minneapolis man was granted a stayed sentenced after he repeatedly struck a police officer attempting to resolve an order for protection violation in St. Paul this past spring. The officer went to the hospital with a head wound.
Ramsey County District Judge Nicole Starr delivered the stayed sentence at a hearing held for Coni Lamark Shegog Wednesday afternoon.
It was handed down roughly two months after the 29-year-old pleaded guilty to three counts of fourth-degree assault of a peace officer in the case.
Shegog also was sentenced to spend 70 days in jail but was given credit for the time he already served on the offense.
He also will need to undergo any anger management or cognitive skills training recommended by his probation officer, according to court records.
“The judge gave him the right sentence,” his attorney, Jeremy Plesha, said Thursday. “She stayed the imposition, which was a reflection of (Shegog’s) lack of any prior felony convictions. Mr. Shegog was remorseful and he’s putting this behind him.”
The incident began as a routine police call for St. Paul officer Dominic Dzik, who was called to an apartment building on Cook Avenue near Westminster Street about 1:30 p.m. this past March 7.
A woman at the scene reported that earlier in the day, a neighbor — Shegog’s girlfriend — had violated an order for protection the woman had filed after recently being threatened with a knife.
As Dzik talked to the woman in the parking lot, a vehicle pulled in and the woman’s neighbor was in the passenger seat. Shegog was driving the vehicle.
When Dzik went to talk to the people in the car, Shegog began yelling at the officer, telling him to move his “(expletive) squad,” before exiting the vehicle.
Things quickly escalated between the two, prompting Dzik to eventually spray chemical irritant at Shegog as he attempted to place him under arrest.
That’s when Shegog started swinging, repeatedly striking Dzik on the top of his head with his fists and a set of keys.
He also spit in another officer’s face.
Dzik, who had difficulty seeing due to the amount of blood seeping from his head, was taken to Regions Hospital, where doctors had to staple his head wound shut.