{"id":11257,"date":"2026-01-19T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=11257"},"modified":"2026-01-18T14:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T20:42:15","slug":"ogema-degroat-sentenced-for-assault-vehicle-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/ogema-degroat-sentenced-for-assault-vehicle-hit\/","title":{"rendered":"Ogema: DeGroat Sentenced for Assault, Vehicle Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Becker County (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014<\/strong> Timothy Wayne DeGroat, 59, of Ogema, is headed to prison after a jury verdict.<\/p>\n

DeGroat was sentenced in Becker County District Court on Dec. 30, 2025.<\/p>\n

Judge Michelle Lawson imposed a 21-month state prison sentence in St. Cloud.<\/p>\n

The court gave him 177 days of jail credit.<\/p>\n

The court also ordered $135 in fines and fees.<\/p>\n

A jury found DeGroat guilty on Oct. 29, 2025.<\/p>\n

The convictions were felony second-degree assault and felony criminal vehicular operation.<\/p>\n

A misdemeanor fifth-degree assault charge was dismissed earlier.<\/p>\n

What happened<\/h2>\n

Court records say the incident happened at about 8:43 p.m. on July 7, 2025.<\/p>\n

Officers were sent to a rural home near Ogema after a report of a man being hit by a vehicle.<\/p>\n

The caller said the driver left the area.<\/p>\n

Witnesses told officers there was a property dispute.<\/p>\n

They said DeGroat arrived in a pickup and yelled at a male relative.<\/p>\n

The man walked away and did not argue, records say.<\/p>\n

DeGroat backed up the pickup, records say.<\/p>\n

He drove into the yard toward the man, records say.<\/p>\n

The pickup struck the man in the leg, the complaint says.<\/p>\n

Records say DeGroat got out of the truck after the impact.<\/p>\n

He grabbed a long wooden pole from the truck bed, records say.<\/p>\n

Witnesses said he chased another person with the pole.<\/p>\n

That person ran away and avoided being hit, records say.<\/p>\n

DeGroat then drove away, records say.<\/p>\n

\"Timothy
Timothy Wayne DeGroat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Search and arrest<\/h2>\n

Officers later found DeGroat\u2019s pickup in a nearby field, records say.<\/p>\n

The truck was unoccupied.<\/p>\n

Officers also found a wooden pole in the truck bed, records say.<\/p>\n

The pole matched the witness description, records say.<\/p>\n

Shortly after 9:30 p.m., officers got another call, records say.<\/p>\n

They were told DeGroat was at a business in Callaway.<\/p>\n

An employee said DeGroat talked about police looking for him.<\/p>\n

The employee said DeGroat urged someone to call the police.<\/p>\n

The employee also reported talking about a problem at the farm, records say.<\/p>\n

Officers arrived and took DeGroat into custody, records say.<\/p>\n

Victim\u2019s condition<\/h2>\n

Court records say officers could not interview the injured man that night.<\/p>\n

His medical condition prevented a full statement.<\/p>\n

The man said he could not feel his legs, records say.<\/p>\n

He was airlifted to Fargo for emergency care.<\/p>\n

Sentence and public information<\/h2>\n

Second-degree assault is defined in Minn. Stat. \u00a7 609.222<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Criminal vehicular operation is listed in Minn. Stat. \u00a7 609.2113<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many case records can be searched on Minnesota Court Records Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contact details are posted on the Becker County District Court<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

County services are listed on the Becker County<\/a> website.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Becker County (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 Timothy Wayne DeGroat, 59, of Ogema, is headed to prison after a jury verdict. DeGroat was sentenced in Becker County District Court on Dec. 30, 2025. Judge Michelle Lawson imposed a 21-month state prison sentence in St. Cloud. The court gave him 177 days of jail credit. The court also ordered… Continue reading Ogema: DeGroat Sentenced for Assault, Vehicle Hit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[1135,913,257,772,7410,10129,9801,929,52,1860,2089,2254,926,151,1286,1578,2108,7135,2079,3342,9802,3094,2078,2425,9982,786,1070,2215],"class_list":["post-11257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-assault","tag-becker-county","tag-car","tag-crime","tag-criminal-vehicular-operation","tag-degroat","tag-deliberately","tag-detroit","tag-for","tag-hit","tag-hitting","tag-jury-verdict","tag-lakes","tag-man","tag-minnesota-court","tag-months","tag-ogema","tag-ogema-mn","tag-prison","tag-prison-sentence","tag-relative","tag-second-degree-assault","tag-sentenced","tag-sentencing","tag-timothy-wayne-degroat","tag-trf-news","tag-tribune","tag-vehicle","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11257"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11505,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11257\/revisions\/11505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}