The two sons of rock star John Mellencamp were sentenced Friday after entering guilty pleas in a 2013 attack on a 19-year-old youth after a party in Bloomington, Indiana — not far from where their famous father still lives.
But did the pair — the only two boys out of five children fathered by the “Pink Houses” hitmaker — get off easy, receiving barely a slap on the wrist for their violent assault, allegedly committed with a third man, Ty Smith, in July of 2013?
Ty Smith is the son of a former coach of the Indiana University baseball team, Tracy Smith. Ty Smith is still facing a court hearing on the charges.
Speck Mellencamp, 19, and his brother Hud Mellencamp, were each sentenced to a year of probation, but the court allowed the probation to be served remotely so they could attend college.
Speck Mellencamp was also sentenced to four days in jail, with one day credit for the brief time he had already spent behind bars. Hud Mellencamp’s additional sentence consisted of 50 hours of community service.
The Mellencamp brothers attacked the man, they said, because they thought he was the guy who had punched Speck Mellencamp (above, left) in the face earlier that night at the party. Whether the victim had actually committed that alleged offense was unclear.
Both of the Mellencamp sons earlier faced felony assault charges , and both had pleaded not guilty to those charges. However, prosecutors recently agreed to drop the charges down to misdemeanor battery.
When that happened, the two Mellencamp sons changed their pleas from not guilty to guilty and were sentenced — in what seems like barely a slap on the wrist for both.
According to Monroe County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Bob Miller, the charges were lightened because the victim suffered no “serious bodily injury” as a result of the beating.
Police reports said that the Mellencamp sons and Smith “punched, kicked and stomped” the 19-year-old — but apparently, according to the prosecutor, they did not really hurt him.
The earlier felony charges alleged that the victim had, indeed, suffered “serious bodily injury,” but prosecutors decided that there were no such serious injuries after all.
Hud Mellencamp plays football for Duke University, though he joined the team as a “walk on” player and was not recruited by the North Carolina school for athletics.
John Mellencamp was not in the courtroom when his sons were sentenced.
[Images: Monroe County Jail]
