By Lori Carlson, Editor

A Prior Lake man is among four men charged in Dakota County in the beating and torture of a mentally disabled Lakeville man.

On Wednesday, the Dakota County Attorney revised charges against Timothy John Ketterling, 22, of Prior Lake and three Northfield men: Jonathan Michael Diepold, 21, Glen Richard Ries, 33, and John Maxwell Maniglia, 19.

Ketterling is charged with third-degree assault and false imprisonment, both felonies, and theft, a gross misdemeanor.

The other three men are charged with an assortment of crimes, including kidnapping, aggravated robbery, false imprisonment, assault and theft.

A 16-year-old Lakeville girl also has been petitioned into juvenile court and charged with kidnapping, aggravated robbery, assault, false imprisonment and theft. Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom has filed a motion to certify the girl as an adult in connection with the charges.

According to the criminal complaints:

On Oct. 12, the Dakota County Sheriff’s office received word of an assault involving a vulnerable adult in rural Dakota County near Northfield. The Lakeville man had been brought to the Northfield Police Department and told police he had been assaulted on two consecutive nights by two men he called John and Max. He also said a man named Tim and a 16-year-old girl had picked him up around 11:30 p.m. Oct. 10 and took him to a rural location. Police later found that the girl had recently befriended the Lakeville man.

He told police that Diepold and Maniglia accused him of assaulting the girl, then knocked him to the ground and punched, kicked and struck him with tree branches and other objects over the course of several hours. He said the two demanded money or property from him. They later drove him to his house and eventually stole X-Box games from his home, according to the complaint.

The man told police that at 11 p.m. the next night, Oct. 11, he was in downtown Northfield with the girl when Diepold and Maniglia arrived in a truck driven by Ries. He said he went downtown with the girl because she told him they would meet up with one of her girlfriends. The man allegedly was forced into the truck and driven to the same location of the previous attack. Again, he was pushed and assaulted for several hours, including being bound to a tree with a belt and burned with a cigarette lighter and a heated credit card. The group eventually released him, and he left the area on foot. He found a highway, where he was picked up and taken to the Northfield Police Department.

According to the report, the man suffered deep contusions, bruises, cuts, burns and two broken ribs. He was treated at the local hospital and released.

Later on Oct. 11, a sheriff’s deputy stopped a truck and took Ries, Diepold and Maniglia into custody. They later located Ketterling and the 16-year-old girl, and all five were arrested. In the truck, officers found the man’s wallet and a baton similar to the type used by police, which they believe was used to assault the man.

The charges against Ketterling carry lesser penalties overall than the charges against the other three men. For the third-degree assault charge, he faces up to five years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines. The false imprisonment charge could put him in prison for up to three years and carries up to a $5,000 fine. For the theft charge, Ketterling faces up to a year in prison and up to a $3,000 fine.

Ketterling remains in the Dakota County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail; the other men are in jail on $300,000 bail. All four are scheduled to appear in Dakota County Court on Oct. 27.

 Lori Carlson can be reached at (952) 345-6378 or editor@plamerican.com.