Published: June 19, 2008 10:38 pm      

Portage man gets jail time in assault

EBENSBURG — A Portage-area man was sentenced Thursday to three to 23 months in the county jail and ordered to pay $6,000 restitution for seriously injuring a man outside a bar.

Gary Eugene Vaughn Jr. also drew a consecutive one-year probationary term on a guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge, reduced from attempting to solicit sex from a woman at his former business in Nanty Glo.

Judge Timothy Creany ordered Vaughn to report to the jail July 1 to begin his term.

Work release will be set up, the judge said.

Vaughn, 34, of the 700 block of Farren Street, Portage, also was ordered to pay $600 in fines.

He pleaded guilty to simple assault, reduced from the more serious aggravated assault, in the attack on Jonathan Zanich early Jan. 1 outside Brady’s Bar, 1635 Caldwell Ave., Portage Township.

State police said the two men had a confrontation inside the bar. Later, when Zanich left, he was attacked outside by Vaughn. The victim was knocked unconscious to the ground and then kicked, police said.

The victim received a skull fracture and other injuries, according to a probable cause affidavit. He did not attend Thursday’s sentencing.

In the other case, the police said that a woman who had gone to Vaughn’s former business – Gary’s Steals and Deals – to pawn a ring had been solicited by Vaughn, on Feb. 21, 2006. She refused and left the building.