Foursome admit assaulting hotel employees, sentenced to probation
Two men and two women who assaulted a pair of hotel employees in Palm Desert pleaded guilty today to misdemeanor and felony charges and were immediately sentenced to terms of probation.
Danei Deborah Davis, 28, Dalon Emil Decoud Jr., 29, Gregory Lamar Pate Jr., 29, and Diane Portillo, 31, admitted to the attack at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in 2017.
The plea bargain was reached with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office ahead of a pretrial hearing at the Larson Justice Center in Indio. In exchange for the defendants' admissions, prosecutors dropped multiple related charges filed in the case.
Davis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and was sentenced to 12 months probation; Decoud pleaded guilty to assault resulting in great bodily injury and received a 36-month term of felony probation; Pate pleaded guilty to engaging in a riot, a misdemeanor, and was sentenced to 12 months probation; and Portillo admitted a misdemeanor assault charge, also resulting in a 12-month term of probation.
The reasons behind the June 27, 2017, attack were not specified in court documents, but according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by sheriff's investigators, Portillo and Davis held a female employee on the ground and took turns punching and kicking her, while Decoud punched a male employee in the face.
The female employee suffered "pain and major swelling to her head," while the male employee suffered "a broken orbital bone," according to the affidavit.
Pate incited his two female co-defendants to beat the female employee, investigators alleged. The four were arrested immediately after the assault.
None of the defendants had prior documented misdemeanor or felony convictions in Riverside County.
