Ethan Allen Thorgesen who is accused of attacking staff and causing other disturbances at the Baxter County Detention Center and a mental health provider’s office appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Monday.
A relative of Thorgesen’s appeared in court and said he “needed help” and had been struggling with mental health problems. She said she was hopeful that through the court, he “will get the help he needs, instead of the penitentiary.”
The 24-year-old Thorgesen has been charged in two open felony cases for incidents that occurred May 29 at Arisa Health located at 8 Medical Plaza and on June 9 at the detention center.
Police were called to the offices of Arisa Health about 9:30 a.m. to respond to a disturbance. While the officer was enroute, he was told that the parties had been separated and that the male suspect, later identified as Thorgesen, had left the building.
The officer saw two males walking down the street while he was being given information on the clothing the man involved in the disturbance at Arisa Health was wearing.
The clothing description matched one of the males.
As the officer pulled into the area and began exiting his patrol car, Thorgesen is reported to have “aggressively” walked toward the police vehicle.
According to the officer, Thorgesen’s fists were clenched and he hit one of the patrol car’s windows.
Thorgesen’s father, who had been walking with him, attempted to physically restrain his son.
After a time, Thorgesen was placed in hand restraints. He continued to make threats, including an intention to kill everyone in the police department and to chop his father’s head off.
The father said Thorgesen was having mental health issues and needed help.
The incident at Arisa Health’s office involved Thorgesen allegedly punching a nurse in her left arm and spitting on her while during the disturbance at the jail, Thorgesen was reported to have grabbed the jail nurse by the hand and attempted to take medications she was dispensing to Thorgesen and several other inmates.
According to the incident report, Thorgesen squeezed the nurse’s hand so firmly that the force caused bruising.
About 1 p.m. on June 9, jailers were taking Thorgesen for his outside recreation time when he became agitated and attacked two jail staff members. He was reported to have punched one staffer on the left side of the face and on his forehead.
He was “drive stunned” which brought the assaults to a close. He was turned over on his stomach, cuffed and taken back to his cell.
During both incidents, Thorgesen threatened several members of the jail staff, including telling one female jailer he intended to “beat her face in.”
Thorgesen was also involved in a disturbance in the jail in mid-March 2021. The incident began when a jailer took Thorgesen into the booking area and then to the lobby of the facility to be released to his father.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Thorgesen’s father met him in the lobby and had “harsh words” for his son which eventually led to words being exchanged between the pair.
At one point, the younger Thorgensen picked up a chair and threw it at the snack machine in the detention center lobby. He then went toward his father in an aggressive manner but was restrained by a jailer.
Other staff members responded to the fight and were able to get Thorgesen under control – but not before he spit in the face of a female jailer.
He was cuffed and a “spit mask” was put on him to prevent a reoccurrence. Thorgesen was put in a “restraint chair,” taken into booking and logged back into the jail based on the fight with his father and jail staff.
In his most recent cases, Thorgesen is charged with three counts of 2nd degree battery, criminal attempted robbery, impairing the operations of a vital public facility, terroristic threatening and disorderly conduct.
He is an inmate in the Baxter County Detention Center with bond set at $35,000.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI