West Central Tribune

Willmar, MN, USA

Thursday 6, September 2007

The mayor of Spicer spent a night in jail after he was arrested in an alleged assault on a bar-and-restaurant employee.

According to a police report, Mayor Perry Wohnoutka, 47, was arrested for alleged fifth-degree assault and disorderly conduct at Melvin's on the Lake in Spicer on Saturday night. He was released from the Kandiyohi County Jail the next day.

Wohnoutka criticized the bouncers at Melvin's and told The West Central Tribune of Willmar on Monday evening that in his view, he's the person who was attacked.

The mayor said he went to Melvin's on Saturday afternoon to listen to a band playing outdoors. There was a VIP party inside the restaurant, and he said he was allowed to attend that, too. The food and beer were free, he said.

It was getting dark when he went outside to get on his bike and go home, he said.

"I'm the one who got beat up," Wohnoutka said. "All I know is I got punched twice in the face. I don't think they got beat up or assaulted in any way."

If there was a problem with anyone at the party, "I don't know what the disagreement would be about," he said.

David Baker, owner of Melvin's, confirmed there was an incident but declined to say much more.

"There was an assault on an employee which led to an arrest, and that involved the mayor," Baker said. He added preferred "to allow the legal process to proceed as it should without any further comments."

Wohnoutka called the experience depressing and embarrassing.

"I've just got to get through it—hang my head up high and make sure it never happens again," he said. "It wasn't intended to ever happen like that."

The mayor also said he feels like his arrest and the resulting embarrassment "is what the city wants." He said his house has been egged several times, and his garbage has been dumped out on his driveway.

Wohnoutka was elected in November 2006 in an upset over four-term incumbent Bill Taylor.