Eagan Man Charged with Malicious Punishment of a Child

An Eagan man has been charged with illegally punishing a 13-year-old girl, hitting her in the face, pulling her hair and whipping her with a belt.

Ronald Maurice Jones, 50, faces a felony charge of malicious punishment of a child, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, someone reported to Eagan police Monday afternoon that Jones was hitting a girl in front of his home.

Officers met with the victim, who said Jones often struck her, and that on this occasion he hit her in the face, pulled her hair, took off his belt and whipped her legs with it.

A neighbor told police that he witnessed the attack, and that when the girl bent over in an attempt to cover her legs, it appeared that Jones hit her in the face with the belt.

Another neighbor said she was outside when she heard Jones yelling and swearing at the girl to go back home, and saw him push the girl and punch her in the face, according to the complaint. She also told police that she saw him remove his belt and hit her “numerous times” with it.

A third neighbor said he also saw Jones pull the girl’s hair.

A neighbor across the street told police that the girl’s younger sister planned to go to a water park with her family that day, and that the victim was walking her sister across the street. The neighbor said Jones almost immediately followed the girls, “very upset,” telling them that the younger girl wasn’t going to the water park because the chores hadn’t been done.

The neighbor said the 13-year-old victim told Jones that her mother said it would be all right for the younger girl to go to the water park, at which point Jones grabbed her by the hair, yelled and swore at her, pushed her, told her to go home and began hitting her with the belt.

Neighbors who witnessed the attack began shouting at Jones to stop, and called police, the complaint says.

Jones, who told police that he hadn’t hit the child, was convicted of fifth-degree assault in late 2008. He remains in the Dakota County Jail in Hastings on a $20,000 bond.