By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – Charges have been filed against two Port Angeles area residents accused of beating up and robbing a young man of hundreds of dollars.

23-year-old Asa Rudner, a male, has been charged with Robbery in the First Degree and Theft. 19-year-old Patience Surber, female, has two charges of being an accomplice to robbery and one charge of solicitation for offering to give the victim, who just graduated high school, a lift in her car, allegedly to set him up for the robbery.

Port Angeles Police say that on Wednesday, June 23 out on Ediz Hook, the victim was riding in the back seat of the car with Rudner as Surber drove. At some point, Rudner demanded the victim give him all of his money. The amount is listed in charging papers as being more than $750.

Police say the victim resisted, but Rudner punched the victim several times in the head and face and took his money. The suspects then left him on Ediz Hook and drove away.

Surber is charged as an accomplice for arranging the crime, apparently with the knowledge that the victim was carrying a lot of cash.

On June 25, Rudner was booked into the jail, where he remains on $50,000 bail. Despite the alleged beating, there is currently no assault charge, likely because the charge of Robbery in the First Degree includes the phrase, “…by use or threatened use of immediate force, violence, or fear of injury to said person, and in the commission of said crime”, indicating that Assault is built into the charge.

On June 27, Surber turned herself in at the police station. She was also booked into jail but was released after posting $10,000 bail.