Inmate charged with assaulting an officer

An inmate at the Pipestone County Jail facing a felony charge of methamphetamine is now facing an additional charge of assaulting a police officer after he struck a jailer.
Aren Franc Hatton, 37, of Woodstock, was arrested on June 6 for possession of meth. Three days later on June 9, he got into an argument with someone visiting him in the jail’s visitation room. Dispatchers notified a deputy of the argument and the deputy and a jailer responded to the visitation room, according to the criminal complaint filed June 11.
The officers told Hatton that he “could not be that loud” and that visiting hours were over. Hatton became argumentative and the deputy tried to remove him from the room, according to the complaint. Hatton then allegedly hit the deputy in the face with his forearm.
The deputy pushed him away and took out his taser, according to the complaint, and Hatton put his hands up and stepped away from the deputy. The officers handcuffed Hatton and as they were taking him back to his cell, he allegedly told the deputy that “he wanted to go one-on-one” with him and “would kick his ass,” according to the complaint.
The deputy had a “large, visible, red mark on his neck, torn skin on the inside of his right upper lip and a broken knob on his portable radio due to this incident,” according to the complaint.
Hatton faces charges of fourth-degree assault of a police officer, a felony punishable by up to three years imprisonment and a $6,000 fine. The initial charge of fifth-degree possession of meth that landed him in jail carries a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine.