A Salina man went to jail last week after he chose to beat his girlfriend in front of the wrong passersby.
Emporia Police Officers Mike Dunn and Tanner Monhollon were in Salina to attend Roadside Impairment Driving Enforcement training on Aug. 18 and 19. The classes were to give the officers training that is more advanced than field sobriety testing but not as advanced as Drug Recognition Expert status. The recent training will enable them to be more specific about the categories of intoxicants that might be in the systems of drivers involved in traffic stops.
“What it did is it helped you to look for the symptoms or signs of the seven different drug categories,” Monhollon said.
“It’s basically to help you articulate if they’re under the influence of drugs,” Dunn added.
They weren’t looking for impaired drivers, though, and hadn’t expected to become involved in an altercation after their first day of classes.
Dunn said they were riding around downtown Salina, near Santa Fe Road and the railroad tracks, with a childhood friend of Monhollon when they heard a woman scream.
“I heard a female scream and I looked over to the right,” Monhollon said. “He just grabbed her and slammed her to the ground, and I saw him rear back and just jam her with his fist.”
Monhollon’s friend stopped the truck, turned around and drove back to the scene to intervene.
“I don’t think there was a second thought that we needed to intervene,” he said.
The man apparently had not expected anyone to interfere with the beating.
“He just kind of looked surprised when we rolled up,” Dunn said. “We talked to him for a few minutes to give her time to get away. … As soon as he got up off her, she took off running the other way.”
In their roles as civilians in another town, the two Emporians could only talk to the man rather than arrest him.
“What we were was witnesses,” Monhollon said. “We intervened to stop the bodily harm, but after that, we were just witnesses.”
The man had a creative excuse to explain away what the officers had seen; he was helping her, rather than harming her, he said.
“He was trying to tell me it was his wife and she was drunk and stumbling, and he didn’t want her to fall on the railroad tracks,” said Monhollon, the domestic violence trainer for the Emporia Police Department.
The man took off, and the EPD officers immediately called 911 to report the incident to Salina police.
The Emporians helped the Salina officers search the area and found the woman hiding not far away.
As Salina police interviewed her, the Emporians spotted her boyfriend.
“He walked by at the end of the alley,” Dunn said.
The Salina officer quickly pursued him.
“They arrested him that night,” Dunn said.
The man apparently was fully involved in beating the woman severely when the Emporia officers happened on the scene.
“She had been kicked in the stomach so hard she lost bladder control,” Monhollon said. “She had urine-soaked pants.”
As she talked with law enforcement, the woman’s hesitancy to reveal details faded away.
“Her first reaction was that she didn’t want him to get into trouble,” Monhollon said. “She changed that after a while.”
Emergency medical technicians checked her injuries and did not take her to the hospital for further treatment.
“She went home to her kids,” Monhollon said, “and he went to jail.”
The Emporia officers then called their supervisor back in Emporia to notify him they’d been involved in an incident in Salina.
“Everything we do on and off duty is governmental conduct,” Dunn said. “That’s what they tell us at the academy. ... We’re always under a microscope.”
justthefacts (anonymous) says...
Good Job EPD!
August 28, 2009 at 5:10 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
barefootin (anonymous) says...
Hope that animal stays caged up for a long time.
August 28, 2009 at 6:37 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
trashman (anonymous) says...
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
August 28, 2009 at 8:36 p.m. ( permalink )
Wasp (anonymous) says...
"In their roles as civilians in another town, the two Emporians could only talk to the man rather than arrest him."
What about doing a Citizen's Arrest?
August 28, 2009 at 10:13 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
spectator (anonymous) says...
"Citizen's Arrest!" "Citizen's Arrest!" "Citizen's Arrest!"
Yeah, you go, Gomer.
August 29, 2009 at 10:54 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
chunkymonkey (anonymous) says...
it's nice to hear good news about cops- i saw that they're arrestin people that use our city streets as urninals---trashman what're you talkin about-
August 29, 2009 at 11:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Steve_Corbin (anonymous) says...
OOOOOH, GOSSIP!
What you got for us trashman? No names please?
August 29, 2009 at 1:13 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
trashman (anonymous) says...
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
August 29, 2009 at 2:25 p.m. ( permalink )
gabby (anonymous) says...
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
August 29, 2009 at 5:56 p.m. ( permalink )
gabby (anonymous) says...
Why was my comment removed by the staff?
September 1, 2009 at 4:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )