ST. GEORGE — A Hildale man with a history of similar offenses was arrested Saturday following a neighbor dispute that began as a verbal altercation and ended with an alleged assault.
On Saturday night, officers with the Colorado City Marshal’s Office responded to a disturbance call at an apartment in Hildale involving a verbal altercation between 40-year-old David Rulon Pledger and one the his neighbors.
Chief Robb Radley with the Colorado City Marshal’s Office told St. George News that during the argument, Pledger accused his neighbor of stealing some of his property, and when the woman denied taking anything, the suspect reportedly slapped her in the head.
Pledger was arrested for misdemeanor assault following the incident at the apartment, but then officers found several outstanding warrants for the suspect’s arrest, including a second-degree felony warrant issued on a case in which Pledger was charged with assault against a peace officer with weapon or force, burglary of a dwelling, threats of violence, criminal mischief and interfering with an arresting officer.
These charges stemmed from an incident reported Dec. 10, 2017 when an officer was called out to a report of a vandalism in progress at a cabin at the Tumurru Ranch. Upon the officer’s arrival, he found a man with a framing hammer hitting a padlocked plywood window protector, according to court documents.
Police say the man, later identified as Pledger, was asked to stop hitting the window protector, but instead of obeying the command, Pledger reportedly told the officer to leave the property and then jumped a “little stem wall” and charged at the officer with the hammer raised over his head in his right hand while letting out a “guttural sounding scream.”
The officer was able to ward off the attack, and Pledger was subsequently arrested and booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility.
Pledger also matched the description of a man from two different reports who had been chasing cars with a hammer earlier that day. Pledger was later identified by one of the individuals who reported the car-chasing incidents while he was at the police department, according to the report.
The suspect entered into mental health court and several warrants were issued for his arrest, the last of which was issued by District Judge G. Michael Westfall in May.
Another assault case was filed in November 2019 after officers responded to a call involving a dispute between the defendant and another man. During the disagreement, court records indicate that Pledger attempted to hit the other man with his truck after the two had a dispute over some property.
The man told police the truck struck him as he was attempting to run away. The officer also noted that tire marks found at the scene and red marks found on the man’s body appeared to corroborate his report.
Pledger pleaded guilty to third-degree felony aggravated assault in June of the following year and was sentenced to serve multiple jail sentences as part of a global resolution on several cases, and he was released later that same year.
Following Sunday’s arrest, the assault charge was submitted to the Washington County Attorney’s Office for review.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.