Assault charges against Royal Trux’s Neil Hagerty dropped

All charges against Royal Trux guitarist Neil Hagerty have been dropped, after he completed a year of mental health treatment.

As reported by The Denver Post, the prosecutors at the city’s District Attorney’s Office have dropped charges relating to an alleged attack on three police officers.

Last April, Hagerty was arrested in Denver, Colorado for allegedly assaulting three officers who had been responding to a welfare check.

The incident occurred on the 600 block of North Pennsylvania Street in the city. The responding officer was responding to the person who made the call when Hagerty reportedly came out of the building and attacked the officer, allegedly using the pin from the officer’s badge to create a six-inch laceration on the officer’s neck.

Two other officers then arrived at the scene as back-up, at which point Hagerty was said to have “remained combative”, injured them and attempted to disarm them. The Denver Police Department said at the time that all three officers were sent to the hospital with non-threatening injuries, and were later released.

Hagerty had been charged with three felonies, for allegedly trying to rip off an officer’s badge, using the badge’s pin to try to cut the officer’s neck and attempting to pull an officer’s gun from his holster.

A statement from Hagerty’s legal representative said that the guitarist was suffering from a mental health crisis at the time of the alleged incident. “After a year of intense mental health treatment, Neil is finally properly diagnosed, stable and making music,” his attorney David Beller said.

“He thanks the officer, judge, district attorney, family and fans for their support of him and applauds Denver for launching new programs that allow those with mental health issues to have their cases dismissed without conditions once the person is stable and maintains their care.”

After learning the news, Hagerty took to the page he had been using to raise funds for his legal case to write: “I want to thank you all for the part you played in this outcome. I’ll try writing again once this news sinks in a little bit.”

The cult alternative rock duo Royal Trux formed in Washington, DC in the late 1980s, releasing a series of albums until splitting in 2001. They have been cited as an influence by Pavement, Sonic Youth and Primal Scream.

They reformed to release their first album in 19 years, 2019’s ‘White Stuff’, and have been largely inactive ever since.

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