Three teenagers from East Palo Alto are facing felony charges after Mountain View police say they beat a 26-year-old Turlock man so badly he lost consciousness, suffering lacerations, bruising and eyelid swelling during a June brawl at a Stierlin Road event hall. The attack happened on June 20 at IFES Society Hall, and it took investigators roughly two months to formally connect the teens to the case.
According to the Mountain View Police Department, officers responded that night after a fight in progress was reported at the hall, as first reported by the Mountain View Voice. Police say the victim, a 26-year-old Turlock man, suffered injuries during the assault and reported losing consciousness. Investigators later identified two 15-year-olds and one 14-year-old as suspects in the beating, with all three now suspected of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, per the same account.
The 14-year-old is also suspected of making criminal threats, an additional charge Mountain View police filed as the investigation into the June battery continued, the report notes. The venue itself, IFES Society Hall at 432 Stierlin Road, is run by a Portuguese-American fraternal organization founded in Mountain View in 1926 that hosts social gatherings and private rental events, according to the IFES Society, which is marking its centennial this year.
Suspects Were Already in Custody Before Charges Were Filed
The path to charging the three teens took an unusual turn. Rather than being apprehended through a targeted manhunt, the suspects were taken into custody in Atherton on August 21 for an unrelated incident, police said, before Mountain View investigators tied them to the June assault and filed the felony battery and assault charges, according to a City of Mountain View news release. Authorities have not publicly detailed the nature of that Atherton arrest…