A Carbon County man pleaded guilty in the county court on Tuesday to a charge of simple assault at a party in Mahoning Township in August 2019.

Lucas Mika, 23, of Jim Thorpe, was one of four people charged. One victim suffered serious injuries.

He entered his plea before Judge Steven R. Serfass.

In exchange for the plea, a felony count of aggravated assault was dropped by the district attorney’s office.

Mika was charged for an incident on Aug. 11, 2019, at a residence along Semmels Hill Road.

At 5:10 p.m. officer Corey L. Frey received a report of an assault that had occurred the night before at a party. The victims, a 15-year-old teen and his brother, were injured during the assault and had to be treated at the hospital.

The teen was treated in the St. Luke’s Lehighton Emergency Room for second-degree burns to the back of his right leg from above his knee to his ankle. The other victim required surgery to wire his jaw shut and also needed stitches in the back of his head to close a laceration. He was taken to the Lehighton hospital but later transferred to a Lehigh Valley trauma center.

Charged in addition to Mika were Aric Fox, 21, of Summit Hill; Alexander Candelario, 21; and Justin Rodriguez, 20, both of Lansford. Their cases are still pending.

The following day police talked to a 16-year-old witness who said she was at the party when someone messaged her, asking for the address. She said the man said he was with one other person. However, two carloads of people showed up, 10 males and two females.

The witness said everything was fine at first, and all of a sudden she saw someone on the ground with three or four men on top of him punching and kicking him.

The witness later identified two of the men, one of whom was Mika, and said that the other victim got involved to help his brother and that is when he got punched. The witness was unsure how many times the other victim was punched. She ran inside to get her friend, but when they came back outside the fight was over and everyone involved had left.

The witness identified two men in a photo lineup. On Aug. 13, the two victims came to the station to speak with the officers regarding the assault and said that while at the party, a kid came up to him, asking “who the kid from Allentown was.” The one victim said that as soon as he said, “yeah, why,” he got hit on the side and back of his head and was unsure who initially hit him.

The victim said that after being struck he fell and hit his head, and that while on the ground, he continued to get hit and stomped on. He said he was able to get to his feet and walk away toward his car, and he identified two of the defendants in a photo lineup, one of which was Mika.

A female victim said she had attended the party and was attacked by four males at the same time, but was able to tackle one of the males and covered herself up.

She was shown the photo lineups and identified one of the males who assaulted her.

The other victim said that he went to the party with his cousin, and that when the fight started, he stepped in to help his brother and was hit from out of nowhere. He said that after being struck, he blacked out and woke up on the ground with someone punching him, and that after getting off the ground he was helped to the car.

Court appointed defense attorney Michael P. Gough asked the court to impose a probation sentence.

Assistant District Attorney Brian B. Gazo argued for a jail term stating the injuries sustained by the victims were serious, and a substantial medical bill is owed for treatment. He said the initial bill by the hospital was quite substantial but the attorneys of the defendants had negotiated a final restitution with the hospital which is much lower than the original.

He said, “More jail time is warranted.”

A relative of the victims also spoke, saying the attack the two victims suffered was horrible. She said the teen was thrown into a fire, where he sustained his burns, while his older brother was repeatedly struck and kicked while on the ground.

Serfass said he had to consider the injuries suffered by the victims and its effect on the community in general.

Serfass sentenced Mika to serve three to one day less 24 months in prison and ordered he have no contact with the victims, get a drug and alcohol evaluation and follow any recommendation for treatment, attend and successfully complete an anger management course, render 100 hours of community service, supply a DNA sample, pay court costs of about $1,000, pay a $50 per month supervision fee while on parole and make restitution for his share of medical bills of $5,763.05.

He was given credit for five days already served and will begin serving the jail term at 6 p.m. on July 9 and serve it on consecutive weekends.

A defendant in the case, Rodriguez is due to plea in court on Aug. 9. Candelario has a status conference later this month. Fox is expected to be sentenced later this month.