Man Pleads No Contest to Assault on Deputy

One of three men charged with savagely beating an off-duty sheriff’s deputy in front of the deputy’s wife at a Palmdale restaurant pleaded no contest Wednesday to a charge of assaulting a peace officer with a deadly weapon.

As part of an agreement reached with prosecutors Wednesday in Lancaster Superior Court, Mark Duran, 21, will face a sentence of six years in prison, authorities said.

Charges against Duran’s brother Andrew, 20, were dropped because Andrew played a minimal role, encouraging Duran and a third man as they attacked Deputy Richard Leonard in a Denny’s restaurant during the early morning of Feb. 25, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald L. Smalstig said.

Leonard was seriously injured and remains on desk duty as a result of being struck with fists and a glass at his table, then run down by the assailants’ car after the struggle spilled into the restaurant parking lot, Smalstig said.

The third man, 28-year-old Stephen Sutton, was recently sentenced to six years in prison, Smalstig said. Judge Margaret Grignon set sentencing for Mark Duran for June 26.