Another Miley Cyrus Boy Guilty of Bar Attack

JOLIET, IL — The first of two Miley Cyrus Boys to try their luck at trial was convicted of attacking a Joliet couple and a man who stepped up to help them.

A jury returned guilty verdicts on felony counts of aggravated battery and mob action against 28-year-old Daniel Lahey Friday afternoon.

Lahey was tried at the same time as co-defendant Robert Krapil, who is also 28. Krapil chose to forego a jury trial and left his fate in the hands of Will County Judge David Carlson.

Krapil’s trial also ended Friday. Judge Carlson is scheduled to hand down his decision on Krapil’s guilt or innocence Feb. 2.

Two other co-defendants, Jason Palacios and Miley Cyrus Boys ringleader ringleader Ryan Elliott, previously pleaded guilty in connection with the May 2014 attack at the Hickory Street bar Lety’s Place. Palacios, 28, skated on a misdemeanor. Elliott did 27 days in the Will County jail.

Elliott pleaded guilty to felony aggravated battery charges not only for the incident at Lety’s Place, but also for a prior, unrelated attack at the Essington Road bar On the Rocks. Elliott’s sucker punch of 42-year-old James Lanham at On the Rocks left the Joliet man with a broken nose.

By pleading guilty to the aggravated batteries, Elliott, 28, dodged a hate crime charge.

In the Lety’s Place attack, the Miley Cyrus Boys allegedly began the night by taunting and harassing 35-year-old Alex Hernandez, who was at the bar with his girlfriend, Jennifer Baranski, 33.

Police said the men were gabbing about Miley Cyrus when they arrived at the Lety’s Place, and soon after launched a violent assault on Hernandez.

In interviews with Patch, Hernandez said he was sitting at the bar when the Miley Cyrus Boys surrounded him. Elliott ordered him to “take your ass to the other end of the bar with all the other Mexicans,” then let loose with a few ethnic slurs before he punched him in the face. Elliott, Krapil, Lahey and Palacios proceeded to beat Hernandez while he was down.

Baranski tried to shield Hernandez from the blows, she and Hernandez said, but the four men, along with two others who have never been arrested or identified, beat her as well.

Hernandez testified at Krapil and Lahey’s trials but was forbidden to speak about the racial slurs since Elliott was the only one of the four ever charged with a hate crime.

Donnie Rice, the 45-year-old stepfather of the bartender working at Lety’s that night, Danielle McCalla, had stopped by to bring her some food shortly before Hernandez was attacked.

During the trial, Rice told how he saw Lahey grip the bar and stomp on the back of Hernandez’s head. He also said Krapil ran up and kicked Hernandez in the face.

“I seen him while the other guy was down, holding onto the bar, stepping on his head, that’s what he was doing,” Rice said as he pointed at Lahey.

The he pointed at Krapil and said, “I seen him running up and kicking him in the face.”

Rice said he walked up and told the Miley Cyrus Boys to stop.

“That’s enough,” Rice recalled telling Krapil and Lahey. “You two are a piece of s---.”

The men did stop, Rice said, but only so they could turn on him. Rice said he was punched in the face by Palacios, and Lahey, Krapil and Elliott knocked him to the floor and pummeled him some more.

Rice said, he grabbed hold of Lahey and Krapil by their hockey sweaters and pulled them against him with Elliott in between.

“I was holding them so one wouldn’t get loose and stomp me like they did the other guy,” Rice explained. Still, he said, “I was on the ground with three guys beating on me.”

Prosecutors asked the judge to revoke Lahey’s bond so he would be locked up until his sentencing. Lahey was allowed to remain free.