Dec 21, 2007 7:43 pm US/Central
Charges: 2 Cut Off A Woman's Underwear In A Bar
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) ―
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Russell J. Baumgardner, left; and Michael S. Puhalla are accused of cutting off a woman's underwear with a pocket knife in a bar and placing it on a fan.
Stearns County Jail
Two men were charged with sexual assault after cutting a woman's underwear off in a
Sartell, Minn. bar in what they characterized as a joke.
Michael
Puhalla, 39, of
Sartell, and Russell
Baumgardner, 40, of
Sauk Rapids, were charged in
Stearns County District Court on Wednesday with second-degree sexual assault with a dangerous weapon and second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon. They are accused of holding the woman down against the bar and cutting off her underwear with a pocketknife and placing it on a fan in the bar.
Puhalla and
Baumgardner both told authorities they viewed the incident as a joke, according to a criminal complaint.
According to the complaint, the woman was in the Dam Bar when she ran into
Puhalla and
Baumgardner, whom she considered friends. As they talked, the two men joked about what kind of underwear she was wearing. She told them it was none of their business, and
Baumgardner said he was going to cut off her underwear. She replied: "You're not man enough for that."
The two men walked over to the woman, seated at the bar, and
Baumgardner pulled out a pocketknife while
Puhalla held her down on the bar by her wrists and forearms.
Baumgardner reached in her pants and cut each side of her underwear. At that time, she said, another man came up to her, poked at her chest, and said they should cut that off next. She believed the third man was referring to her bra.
The complaint said the woman yelled for help several times and asked the bartender to intervene, but he said, "I can't or they will make things worse for me." There were as many as six other men in the bar and none of them came to her aid, either, she said.
Police met with the woman and detected bruises on her arms and an abrasion in her groin area.
Puhalla told police he and
Baumgardner were joking around when the topic of underwear came up. Referring to the incident, he said it was time for the woman "to take one for the team."
Baumgardner told police that he has participated in similar acts in the past as a joke. He said everyone in the bar was watching and laughing at the time. He said he tried to apologize to the woman, but she would not talk to him.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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