Tara Lynn Cook was panicked and desperate to get herself and her father away from a mob of angry bystanders when she fled the scene of an accident outside Born's Bar in St. Paul the night of July 24, 2007, her attorney, Christopher Champagne, said Thursday.

Cook originally was charged in Ramsey County District Court with first- and second-degree assault and failing to stop at an accident resulting in great bodily harm, all felonies. She pleaded guilty Tuesday to leaving the scene of an accident, a gross misdemeanor, and was sentenced Thursday to two years' probation. District Judge William H. Leary III gave her credit for the five days she spent in custody.

Champagne laid out the evidence found by his investigators:

Cook, 26, and her mother got in an argument outside the bar. A group of teenagers across the street believed the yelling was directed at them and started an altercation with the pair.

That group "turned into a mob," Champagne said, and the Cooks asked bar patrons to call police. One person "sucker-punched" Cook's mother, and a group of four or five people jumped on her father, Champagne said. A passerby who had stopped to see what was happening also was jumped by the mob.

Cook ran to her car, circled the block and stopped in the street so her father could get into the car. Bar patrons pulled her mother into the bar.

The mob encircled Cook's car and broke the driver's side windshield with a cinderblock, Champagne said.

Cook then stepped on the gas, bounced onto the curb and hit a parked car and a wall. She didn't know at the time that she'd also hit a man named Jerome Beavers, Champagne said. Beavers, who Champagne said had been with the mob, was seriously injured but has recovered.

When the mob again surrounded Cook's car and tried to pull her father out, she threw the car into reverse and left the scene, Champagne said.

Police only talked to three people, all of whom were part of the mob, Champagne said. The case took so long to resolve because Cook and Champagne vehemently disputed the contention that Cook intentionally hit two people with her car and circled the block to do it again.

Pat Pheifer • 651-298-1551