Pratt attacker indicted on 6 charges, faces 40 years

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Pinal County District Attorney James P. Walsh announced today at a press conference in Casa Grande that the man who broke into State Representative Frank Pratt’s business and severely beat him on Christmas Day has been indicted on six felony charges.

Casa Grande resident Hilyard Bardney Scott, 34, was indicted on Friday by the grand jury for kidnapping, robbery, aggravated assault, third degree burglary, car theft and theft.

“My office intends to vigorously prosecute Mr. Scott,” Walsh said. “If he is convicted of all the charges brought against him and sentenced consecutively, he will be looking at upwards of 40 years in prison.”

The attack occurred on the afternoon of Dec. 25 when Pratt went to his pool business in Casa Grande and found Scott inside.

According to Pratt, Scott initially acted as if he intended to leave without incident, but then suddenly attacked Pratt, knocking him to the floor, beating him and leaving him tied up in the business office.

The theft and auto theft charges against Scott were brought because he took Pratt’s Rolex watch and other property and fled the scene in legislator’s 2007 GMC Yukon.

When Pratt did not return to his home on Christmas afternoon, his wife, Janice, went by the office to check on him. Not seeing his SUV, she assumed he was elsewhere and went back to the couple’s Casa Grande home. When Pratt still had not shown up by 8 p.m., Janice went back to the business, tried the door and heard her husband call for help.

Pratt suffered a facial fracture, multiple bruises and contusions and a badly split lip in the attack. He was treated on the scene by Casa Grande Fire Department paramedics, and then flown to a Phoenix hospital. He was sufficiently recovered by Jan. 11 to open the new Legislative session on that day.

Scott had some of Pratt’s property in his possession when he was arrested in Phoenix on Jan. 4, and he was wearing a pair of Reebok shoes with soles that matched shoe prints at the Casa Grande crime scene.

According to court documents, Scott admitted to the crime when he was arrested. “The victim’s Rolex watch looked real, and the victim appeared to be a rich man,” he said.

Walsh said Scott was charged in two additional cases just prior to being indicted for the attack on Pratt.

On Jan. 12, the Pinal County Grand Jury charged Scott with assault and aggravated domestic violence for allegedly attacking a woman in Casa Grande in August. The next day, the grand jurors indicted him for allegedly assaulting Casa Grande resident Matthew James Lee and stealing his vehicle on Dec. 22.

Scott is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday on the charges stemming from the attack on Pratt.