Pipeline employee charged in assault of co-worker

A 37-year-old pipeline worker from Waubun, Minnesota was charged with multiple felony-level assault charges Friday, Oct. 18, after allegedly stabbing a coworker in the home they shared on Reservation Road, outside Cloquet.

Randy Allen Hagen Jr. was arrested Oct. 17, after Cloquet police first responded at 11:30 p.m. Oct. 16 to Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet, where they found the victim of a stabbing being treated by an emergency room nurse applying pressure to the wound.

Hagen was charged with felony first-degree assault-great bodily harm, felony third-degree assault-substantial bodily harm, and misdemeanor domestic assault-intentionally inflicts/attempts to inflict bodily harm on another. If convicted, Hagen faces prison time and thousands of dollars in fines, though court documents were unclear about maximums.

In an interview with police, Hagen denied stabbing the victim, one of three men in the house at the time of the incident. Instead, Hagen admitted to throwing an elbow that may have been the cause of a chip in the victim’s tooth, said the criminal complaint filed in Sixth District Court.

According to the complaint, the stab wound, to the left side of the 32-year-old victim’s neck, continued to “bleed profusely” while at the Cloquet hospital. The man was subsequently transferred to St. Luke’s hospital in Duluth, where authorities later interviewed him once he’d been stabilized.

Hagen posted $10,000 on $100,000 bail and was ordered by Judge Theresa Neo to have no contact with the victim. Neo denied a request by Hagen for a public defender. He is scheduled to appear for an omnibus hearing at 10 a.m. Nov. 6.