Police accuse Lower Burrell man of hitting woman in face with baseball bat during fight over dog
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Lower Burrell police accused a man of punching a woman during an argument over a dog and then hitting her in the head and face with a baseball bat multiple times when she tried to fight back.
Matthew Anthony Betts Sr., 56, of the 2700 block of Lori Drive was charged with a felony count of aggravated assault, according to court records.
He was being detained in the Westmoreland County jail in lieu of a $10,000 cash bond and faces a preliminary hearing before District Judge Cheryl Peck Yakopec on Tuesday, court records show.
Police responding to a domestic incident shortly before 8:30 p.m. Jan. 14 said the house was so dimly lit that the only injury they could see on the woman was a cut lip, which she told them she suffered during a fall in the shower, according to a criminal complaint.
Police said they found blood splatters on the tub and on a bar of soap, the complaint said.
Betts told police the woman and her friend went out drinking that night and when she returned home she started a fight with him, the complaint said.
He told officers that the woman tried to assault him with a baseball bat and that he suffered cuts to his throat when he tried to defend himself by wrestling it away from her, police said.
Betts told police he did not know the woman suffered a laceration to her lip during the tussle over the bat, the complaint said.
Police said the full extent of the woman’s injuries did not become visible until after she was taken to a hospital and was attended to by a nurse in a brightly lit exam room.
The nurse reported to police that, in addition to the split lip, the woman had a nearly 2-inch gash on the top of her head along with multiple lumps, swelling between the eyebrows and a swollen and bruised chin, the complaint said.
The nurse said the injuries appeared to have been caused by a blunt object such as a baseball bat, the complaint said.
When police questioned the woman about her injuries, she told them that she and Betts returned home from a night of drinking and he got angry when she started playing with his dog, police said.
She told investigators that she left the room but Betts followed her into a bedroom and began punching her, the complaint said.
The woman told police she tried to fight back and scratched Betts’ throat but he grabbed a baseball bat from a closet and began hitting her in the face and head with it, the complaint said.
She told police she was able to break away from him and run out of the house to call 911 from the front yard, according to the complaint. She said she dropped her cellphone when Betts forced her back inside, police said.
One of the officers who responded to the scene found the phone in the yard, the complaint said.