A hotel employee in Monticello who followed a guest outside to ask him to delete a photograph ended up with pepper spray in his face on Nov. 5, according to a Wright County complaint.
A Wright County deputy responded at 6:04 a.m. The employee told the deputy that a guest had approached and complained that people across the hall were harassing him, then asked for their names. The employee said that information could not be provided. The guest yelled and cussed at the employee, took a photograph of him, threatened to get him fired and called him many derogatory names, the employee said. The guest went to his room, came back to where the employee was and then left the hotel.
The employee followed and asked the guest to delete the photograph. The guest yelled at him, pulled a can of pepper spray from a pocket and aimed it, the employee said. The employee put a hand up as the guest began to spray. The spray hit him in the face. It initially caused breathing problems and left a burning sensation in his eyes, which he could not open. The guest drove away in a silver Jeep.
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The deputy later reached Anthony Wayne Worel, who was 36 at the time of the alleged offense, by phone. Worel agreed to meet the deputy at the hotel and did so. According to the complaint, he said an employee tried to fight him, he pulled out his pepper spray, the employee hit his hand away and that caused him to spray the employee. The complaint says he gave no details about how the employee tried to fight him. A search of Worel after his arrest turned up seven knives, brass knuckles and pepper spray, the complaint says.
Worel is charged in Wright County District Court in a complaint filed Nov. 6 with one felony count of using tear gas to immobilize a person other than to protect self or property, punishable by up to five years or a $10,000 fine or both. He also faces a misdemeanor count of fifth-degree assault, punishable by up to 90 days or a $1,000 fine or both. The complaint does not list bail.
