Riverdale Park council member Raymond Rivas convicted of beating homeless man In a press release on Wednesday, the Prince George's County state's attorney's office said that Rivas encountered the victim on June 17 at Park Tanglewood Apartments, where he was the complex manager. Rivas started yelling at the man, then retrieved a bat and struck the man repeatedly, the press release said. The victim fled, and Rivas followed him in his car. Rivas then got out of his car, pointed a gun at the victim's head, then fired a shot at the ground, the prosecutor's office said. Rivas's attorney could not be reached for comment on Wednesday afternoon. Vernon Archer, the mayor of Riverdale Park, said that Rivas called him to resign his office about half an hour after he was convicted. Since less than nine months are left in Rivas's term, which would have ended in June, there will be no special election to replace him, Archer said. Instead, according to town protocol, Archer will nominate a replacement, whom the council will have to approve. Rivas will be sentenced on Jan. 23. "This behavior will not be tolerated and Mr. Rivas deserves to spend time in jail to consider the life he endangered," state's attorney Angela Alsobrooks said in the statement. Archer said he was "very disappointed" in Rivas's behavior, but also sorry to hear that Rivas would likely spend at least five years in prison. "I'm disappointed that under the circumstances the five-year mandatory seems above and beyond what seems just to me," Archer said. It doesn't seem to fit the crime to me. He said that Rivas was in the middle of his third two-year term on the council.