More Unreported Black on White Crime by the MSM?

01.20.14

4 beat and rob deaf man in downtown St. Paul, charges say

Suspects are, from left, Brandon Lee Anderson, also known as Brandon Balterman-Werlich; Michael Dewayne Bordeaux; Rianot Nikky Nelson; and Tanisha Ann Wilson. (Courtesy photos)

Four people robbed and beat a deaf man in downtown St. Paul this week, prosecutors charged.

The 35-year-old victim, who told police he knew his attackers from the Dorothy Day Center, was sent to the hospital with a deep laceration on the back of his head and bruises.

The criminal complaints, filed Thursday, give the following account:

On Tuesday, shortly before 9 p.m., officers responded to Wells Fargo Place on Wabasha Street about an assault. A man "was bloodied and frantically using his hands to sign," the complaint said. Officers, who determined he is deaf, used a pen and paper to communicate with him. He said that he had been assaulted and that one of the attackers stole his phone.

Police watched surveillance video.

They saw the victim, identified as TL, walk near a door that exits to Wabasha Street. Four people pushed him back into the building.

"One of the suspects punched TL and the group grabbed him and assaulted him ... for several minutes," the complaint said. "The group went through TL's pockets and backpack" as he lay on the ground and the kicking and punching continued.

The assailants went outside. One of the women fell shortly before police arrived and officers found her; she was described in the complaint as "drunken."

The woman was identified as Tanisha Ann Wilson, 29, and with her was Brandon Lee Anderson, also known as Brandon Balterman-Werlich, 23.

Two others "sprinted back into the building and accessed the skyways when police arrived," the complaint said. An officer who saw the surveillance video named one as Michael Dewayne Bordeaux, 22. Police detained him and Rianot Nikky Nelson, 24, as they tried to board a bus at Fifth and Minnesota streets. The hometowns for all four suspects were unknown, according to the complaints.

The video showed that Nelson punched TL, and the three others joined her in the assault, police said. As TL lay on the ground, Bordeaux allegedly used a large liquor bottle to hit him several times. "Nelson disarmed Bordeaux -- she grabbed the bottle from him and took a swig from it," the complaint said. "Rianot Nelson rifled through TL's pockets as he lay on the floor trying to defend himself. She later searched his backpack."

Officers saw a broken bottle in the building where the assault occurred.

Nelson told police "she was trying to help TL up off the ground," the complaint said. "When confronted, Nelson admitted she did strike TL and she admitted going through his pockets. Nelson said she and the two men debated who would throw the first punch, but she did it. Nelson said TL 'didn't have (expletive).' ... She also admitted she knew TL was deaf and cannot speak."

Bordeaux told police that "he and TL were friends and they had conversed in the past by writing things back and forth," the complaint said. Bordeaux said he had swung a bottle at TL but didn't know where the man was struck. He said he had gone through TL's pockets looking for a cigarette.

Anderson and Wilson both told police they were drunk and didn't remember what happened. When a sergeant showed Wilson the video, she said she had been trying to break up the fight.

The Ramsey County attorney's office charged all four with aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery and Bordeaux with second-degree assault.

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