Avion Hamer is a 23-year-old man living in Dakota County with his court appointed guardian – his mother. Since turning 18, Hamer has been convicted of three robberies, one felony assault of a peace officer, and had at least six misdemeanor cases including obstructing police, brawling, theft, and possession of drug paraphernalia, charged and later dismissed.
In addition, Hamer has been civilly committed as mentally ill and chemically dependent (MI/CD) on three occasions.
Yet just last week he was arrested for fleeing police in a stolen vehicle – and the courts have already released him with no bail.
The background
In 2020, Hamer’s mother petitioned the court to become his legal guardian. In the petition, Hamer’s mother noted that Hamer “lacks sufficient understanding or capacity to make or communicate responsible decisions,” and that Hamer displays “extreme impulsiveness when unattended in the community…”
Over the next three years, Hamer committed three robberies and a half dozen misdemeanors. Each of the felony robbery charges against Hamer ended with the courts accepting plea bargains. Two of the cases were handled by the Hennepin County District Court and the third by the Dakota County Court. Ultimately, Hamer received two different 18-month prison sentences that were each “stayed” for three years. The third robbery was pled down to a misdemeanor assault, and this misdemeanor sentence was also “stayed.”
Instead of serving a single day in prison for the robberies, Hamer was sentenced to “time served” in jail while his cases were litigated. Those robbery case sentences included over a dozen conditions of probation that Hamer was obligated to follow through late 2026 – including to “remain law abiding” – or be subject to serve his remaining probation time in prison.
In 2022, 2023, and 2024, courts in Hennepin County and Dakota County each held evaluations and hearings to determine that Hamer required civil commitment for being chemically dependent and mentally ill. Public records of these commitments are limited, but it’s clear from his continued criminal activity that he was not committed for long, and that the commitments did not successfully treat Hamer, or protect the community. It seems only right that a mental health system designed to look out for the best interest of the patients would incapacitate Hamer if he was not healthy enough to remain law abiding.
In April 2025, the Eden Prairie police had contact with Hammer as part of a domestic incident. Hamer became belligerent, yelled “F*** you” to an officer, and then spat on the officer. That case was charged out as a felony assault, as our legislature has appropriately determined that the transfer of bodily fluids onto an officer is a felony. The case was pled down to a gross misdemeanor at sentencing.
On February 9th, 2026, the Hennepin County District Court sentenced Hamer to a year in the Workhouse for the assault, but “stayed” the sentence for a year and placed him on probation. The court applied six different conditions that Hamer had to abide by in order to avoid being sent to the Workhouse. There is no indication that any of the courts that had sentenced Hamer in the previously mentioned robberies ever became aware of this new conviction. If they had, they would have had the opportunity to revoke his probation and make his serve his remaining time in prison.
This never happened. In fact, on March 17th, 2026, Hamer was summoned to Hennepin County District Court for violating the terms of his probation, but by all accounts, the violation was due to Hamer’s failure to pay restitution in the robberies as ordered by the court, not the conviction for spitting on the officer. The court held its hearing on the matter and ordered Hamer’s terms of probation to continue unaltered.
The next day, March 18th, 2026, Hamer was driving a stolen black SUV with no license plates. The Apple Valley police tried to stop Hamer as he drove on Cedar Ave near 140th Street – a busy roadway with vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Hamer refused to stop and led police on a chase into Eagan where he bailed from the stolen SUV leaving it in gear and allowing it to roll backwards towards the police. Hamer was located a short distance away and arrested. Hamer told the arresting officer that he had fled because the SUV was stolen and because he had drugs in the SUV.
The Dakota County Attorney filed felony charges of fleeing police in a motor vehicle and being in possession of a stolen vehicle – requesting $20,000 bail with no conditions, or $15,000 bail with eight conditions of release. There was no mention at this point about drugs that may have been found in the SUV. No one ever placed a hold on Hamer for violating the conditions of probation that he was under.
Dakota County Judge Christopher Bates signed the complaint at 9:58 AM on Friday March 20th and held a hearing with Hamer that afternoon. Despite all of the above information being available to the court, including the fact he was on felony probation for at least two robberies and had just appeared in court for a probation violation the day before his arrest, Judge Bates issued a release order. The order allowed Hamer to be released from jail with no bail if he agreed to follow nine conditions of release – including to “remain law abiding” – the very conditions Hamer was already under, which he has failed to follow repeatedly.
Hamer was subsequently released from jail pending a May 6th court appearance.
The takeaway
Our court system continues to fail – at spectacular levels – and law-abiding citizens are left to deal with the fallout. There is no excuse in 2026. Automated court and probation records should connect dots and guide judges and staff to make better, more timely decisions that maintain system integrity and keep us all safer.
Avion Hamer is just one of thousands of offenders that our justice system routinely fails to appropriately take responsibility for – and each one of those offenders walks away with even more confirmation that our criminal justice system is toothless. Until the system pivots and begins to back up it’s “conditions for release” with revocations for conditions that are violated, we will all continue to pay a heavy price.
That shouldn’t be too much to ask.
