Fan sentenced for conduct towards ref at Minnesota high school basketball game
A 46-year-old Detroit Lakes man accused of throwing popcorn at a referee and then tearing his whistle from his lanyard during a high school basketball game in January has been sentenced by a district judge.
Phillip S. Lokken was charged March 2 with fifth-degree assault and disorderly conduct in connection to an incident at a Jan. 13 boys basketball game between Lake Park-Audubon and Win-E-Mac.
The fifth-degree assault charge was dismissed, but Lokken was convicted of disorderly conduct by a Becker County judge on April 26. The misdemeanor comes with a $300 fine, 90 days in jail that are stayed for a year, and one year of unsupervised probation.
According to the criminal complaint, Lokken threw a bag of popcorn at a referee toward with approximately 50 seconds left in the game after the referee called a foul on a Win-E-Mac player.
The ref ejected Lokken from the Lake Park-Audubon gym, charges said. Lokken flipped the ref off and said "F*** you!" before approaching the ref on the court and grabbing his whistle and shirt. Lokken then tore the ref's whistle off his lanyard.
Lokken told a sheriff's deputy the ref was making "bulls*** calls all night" and he'd had enough of it, the complaint states.
Here's video from the basketball game:
