Salem woman arrested for domestic battery

By: 
Staff Writer Kate Wehlann

Susan Hunt, 52, Salem, was arrested and preliminarily charged with misdemeanor domestic battery on Tuesday, Oct. 8, following an incident that occurred on Friday, Oct. 4.

Salem Police Officers Allison Voelz and Sergeant James Moore were called back to the station to speak with a man, nose lacerated and bleeding, who said his wife had become upset he had needed to leave Drifter’s Bar on Highway 135 South to go to work. In Voelz’s report, he said the verbal argument became physical on the ride home. As he was driving, he claimed Hunt struck him with a closed fist to the face, but he didn’t hit her back. He claimed she struck him once more before they re-entered the Salem city limits.

The man told officers he had been intending to drive straight home, but said he continued driving around, hoping to de-escalate the situation before they returned to their house. He said Hunt struck him a third time as they were driving around the square and again while they were on East Hackberry Street, then again while they were near the fairgrounds, causing a laceration to his nose. When he felt his nose bleeding, he said he did throw his right arm in front of Susan, striking her in the chest with the back of his hand in an attempt to stop her from hitting him again.

The man said he then drove to High Street and parked the car by the alley leading to the police department. He said he exited the car, gave the keys to Hunt and “told her that he couldn’t take her hitting him any longer.” He said Hunt left in the vehicle and he came inside the police department to make a report. He said he believed Hunt would have either gone home or back to Drifter’s Bar.

The man admitted to being under the influence of alcohol during the drive and blew a .148.

“I reviewed [his] voluntary statement,” said Voelz in her report. “[He] was very consistent in his version of the events that unfolded and his version was corroborated by the injuries exhibited.”

A friend picked him up from the police department.

Moore attempted to find Hunt at both her home and Drifter’s Bar, but was unable to. He did contact her son, who said he would notify her the police wanted to speak with her. Later, just prior to 11 p.m., they did.

Hunt claimed her husband left Drifter’s because he needed to go to work and when she said she wanted to return to the bar to spend time with friends, he hadn’t wanted her to and they had gotten into an argument. She confirmed the route her husband described, but that he had hit her first in the chest with the back of his hand. That was when she had struck him in the nose with a closed fist, causing the injuries. Then he drove to the police department, got out and she traveled to her son’s home.

Hunt was also given a portable breath test, which gave a .09 result. Officers left her with a voluntary statement form, which she turned in the next day, Oct. 5.

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