Keshena man gets 6 months in prison for assault

GREEN BAY — A Keshena was sentenced Friday in federal court to six months in prison and placed on three years’ supervised release for physically assaulting a woman that resulted in a facial injury requiring surgery.

A woman identified only as “Jane Doe,” told authorities on Feb. 17, 2019, that Brad L. Blackowl struck her with a closed fist. The blow landed on her nose resulting in nasal injuries requiring reconstructive surgery.

According to the Oct. 4 plea agreement, Menominee Tribal Police responded to Doe’s address in Keshena where Doe said that Blackowl had assaulted her at a different address in the Menominee Indian Reservation.

The responding officer noted that Doe’s nose was bloody and looked “crooked.” Doe also said the punch had chipped a tooth and she was in a lot of pain.

Doe later had surgery for nasal and septum fractures. The chipped front tooth is an obvious disfigurement and likely to be permanent.

Authorities collected screen shots of Facebook messages Doe received from Blackowl apologizing for hitting her.

Blackowl told a FBI agent and a tribal detective that he had hit Doe, sent her messages apologizing for what he had done, and had learned that Doe required surgery for the injuries he had caused.

Court documents don’t indicate Blackowl’s motivation for the offense or the nature of the relationship between him and his victim.

Efforts to obtain this information from the U.S. Attorney’s office Friday were unsuccessful.

At sentencing, Blackowl faced maximum penalties of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, restitution and three years’ supervised release.

However, Blackowl faced far less severe penalties under the advisory federal sentencing guidelines that factor in the seriousness of the offense, any prior convictions, sentences imposed in similar cases and any other relevant conduct.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Maier requested a sentence within the advisory guidelines but the calculated guideline range wasn’t mention on online court records.

His attorney, Thomas Phillip, asked for a 90- to 120-day sentence with treatment and counseling while on supervised release.

District Judge William Griesbach could have ordered Blackowl pay restitution for expenses Doe incurred related to the offense, but no restitution was requested.

Griesbach did order Blackowl into the custody of U.S. Marshal Service to begin his prison sentence.

Blackowl’s Facebook account contains many posts about boxing and boxers and this message posted on the day he hit Doe: “Had a chance 2 fight tonight but wouldnt of been a good idea havnt been able 2 do much working out or training prolly get my (expletive) kicked dont feel like getting beat up in front of bunch of people i know lmao sounded tempting tho 2 get in the ring.”