A 25-year-old Rifle man was charged with striking his pregnant girlfriend multiple times Jan. 4, and then allegedly committed check fraud a few days later from the Garfield County jail.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the domestic violence call around 10:45 p.m. Saturday and heard fighting when they arrived at the home.
The suspect came outside with officers, and said he knew what was going to happen, and that he would be arrested because he hit his girlfriend, the arresting deputy wrote in a probable cause statement.
The victim said she and her boyfriend of 8 years had been fighting. Earlier that evening, the suspect had accosted her at the bathroom door, forced her to the floor and where he pinned her and struck her face and stomach multiple times with a closed fist, according to the victim.
The couple also had a child together, who was not in the home at the time of the alleged assault.
In the patrol car, the suspect waived his right to remain silent and told the officer his relationship was volatile, and that he had snapped and used too much force, according to the probable cause document. He also said he “was a man and would take responsibility,” the officer wrote.
The man was held in Garfield County jail on $3,000 bond and charged with assault, domestic violence and harassment – all felonies.
A few days later, the man racked up additional charges from jail when Glenwood Springs police were investigating a case of check fraud.
Two people cashed checks that returned insufficient funds from a local store. The three checks totaled $2,684 and were from a business the suspect owned.
Two of the three checks came back from the bank as insufficient funds, but the store apparently had paid out the cash, emptying the store’s registers.
Police interviewed the man in jail, and he said he was “flipping money” and had two people cash the checks.
He told police he was “depending on future deposits to possibly cover the checks,” and was charged with fraud by check, a class 6 felony.
House-sitting burglary
When a Rifle woman returned from treatment at the hospital, she found jewelry, cell phones, and other things missing from her house.
That happened around Sept. 11, but the suspect, a 27-year-old man, wasn’t booked in the county jail on the charges until Jan. 1.
The victim had asked a friend to watch her home during her stay in the hospital.
The friend told investigators that she brought her boyfriend of three weeks along, and that she noticed that some items had been moved while they were staying there.
The boyfriend denied taking anything, but the woman said she found a ring case in his backpack, and knew that he had pawned one ring for $150.
When the house sitter realized what was happening, she asked the suspect to leave.
The owner of the apartment said that an antique ring with three diamonds, worth $6,000, was missing, along with three cell phones, a gaming console, tablet, camera, blue tooth speaker, and other things were missing. The value of all items allegedly taken was $7,320.
The man faces charges of theft, a class 5 felony.
