CHICORA — A Clay Township couple facing up to 20 years in prison on felony assault charges stemming from a free-for-all that left another man with serious head injuries got off with one count each of disorderly conduct.

Kenneth D. Green, 22, and Melissa K. Paner, 24, were charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, simple assault and harassment in the alleged attack last year that left 20-year-old Jesse C. Kastelic hospitalized with a cracked skull and bleeding on the brain.

Police accused Green and Paner of throwing Kastelic, also of Clay Township, out of a car and, along with two other men, fighting with him on a Petrolia road shortly after midnight March 14.

A short time before the melee the five friends had been kicked out of Alan’s Roadhouse in Petrolia because of Kastelic’s intoxicated condition and unruly behavior at the bar.

The fivesome drove away together in a car but soon got into a fight while traveling on Petrolia Road.

Punches were thrown by Green, Kastelic and two other buddies — 20-year-old Thomas R. Sanderson and 27-year-old Jay E. Vinroe Jr. both of Clay Township.

Paner, the driver, eventually stopped the car in the middle of the road. The other men forced Kastelic out of the vehicle and pushed him down.

According to the police complaint, Green and Paner got out of the car and tussled with Kastelic, who was knocked down several more times, apparently hitting his head.

When Green and Paner returned to the car and started to drive away, Kastelic tried to hold onto one of the doors but was thrown off when the vehicle took off.

Kastelic, hit the road, literally, “rendering him unconscious,” according to a police affidavit.

Trooper Robert Rottman, the investigating officer, said another motorist traveling the road happened upon the badly injured man and called for help.

A medical helicopter flew Kastelic to a Pittsburgh hospital where he was treated for potentially life-threatening head injuries and other less serious bodily injuries.

He has since recovered and is back to work, authorities said.

Rottman, in his investigation, also charged Kastelic, Sanderson and Vinroe with simple assault, a misdemeanor, and harassment, a summary. Additionally, Kastelic and Sanderson were charged with underage drinking, also a summary offense.

The five defendants appeared Tuesday at the office of District Judge Lewis Stoughton in Chicora for their preliminary hearings.

But following about two hours of negotiations among their attorneys, prosecutor Russ Karl and Rottman, a deal was reached that abruptly resolved the case without a hearing or any further court action.

Green, Paner, Sanderson and Vinroe all pleaded guilty to a summary charge of disorderly conduct. Each was fined $25 plus court costs. Paner also pleaded guilty to careless driving and was fined another $25.

The entire case against Kastelic was tossed out.

“All of the others refused to testify against him,” Karl said, in explaining the decision to withdraw the charges against Kastelic.

As for the individual deals with the remaining defendants, Karl said he was satisfied with the outcome, “given the circumstances.”

One of the principal circumstances was Kastelic’s intoxicated state.

“He didn’t remember anything that night,” Karl said.

Another circumstance that would have made for a problematic prosecution, he noted, was the differing accounts of the others about what happened.

Kastelic’s attorney, Michael Zunder, declined to comment following the court proceedings.

Not surprising, attorney Vic Vouga, who represented both Green and Paner, was all smiles when he walked out of the courtroom.

“There was no evidence and no witnesses that could prove the (state’s) case,” Vouga said.

He also referred to Kastelic’s “highly intoxicated condition” that night that ultimately forced the case against his clients to crumble.

Vouga, meanwhile, admitted that he had never before seen a case of first-degree felony aggravated assault, like that faced by each of his clients, reduced at the preliminary hearing level to a summary charge.

“It worked out all right,” he said, still smiling.