Court of Appeals orders new trial for Cass Lake man in felony assault case

ST. PAUL — The Minnesota Court of Appeals has reversed the 2022 assault conviction of a Cass Lake man and ordered a new trial.

In a nonprecedential ruling issued Monday, Nov. 6, the appeals court wrote the Beltrami County District Court abused its discretion when it failed to instruct the jury on the defendant’s claims of self-defense.

Benjamin Edward Meat, 38, was arrested in the spring of 2020 after he and his domestic partner had an altercation that began with a food fight and ended with physical violence. The woman’s eye socket was fractured and her tooth went through her lip.

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Meat testified the assault happened in self-defense and that he retreated after it occurred.

But Judge Jeanine R. Brand denied the defendant’s motion to instruct the jury about self-defense and how to evaluate the evidence presented in trial through that lens. Brand made this ruling based on her determination that Meat was the aggressor in the incident.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals, however, there was enough evidence in the court record for the jury to evaluate this instead. In ordering the new trial, the appeals court said it could not rule out that Meat received a harsher verdict because of the lack of instruction on the matter.

Meat served 69 days in county jail, including 46 he’d already served by the sentencing date, and a 1-year prison sentence was stayed for three years while he is on supervised probation.

The state may appeal the decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court as a possible next step.