A Georgia man was arrested in West Des Moines Sunday night after allegedly slamming his girlfriend’s face into the dashboard of a vehicle and seizing her cell phone when she threatened to call the police.
Damon Desha Perkins, 49, of 330 Brannigan Court, Union City, Georgia, was charged with first-offense domestic abuse assault-injury or mental illness and obstruction of emergency communications.
Officers of the West Des Moines Police Department responded to the incident about 9 p.m. Sunday near the intersection of S. 64th Street and Coachlight Court in West Des Moines
According to court records, Perkins pushed the victim “into a parked vehicle and down to the ground” and “did grab her by the hair and direct her back into their vehicle.”
Once the couple was in the vehicle and traveling near the intersection of 64th Street and Coachlight Court in West Des Moines, the victim “threatened to use her phone to call 911 and show photos from a previous assault.”
In response, Perkins allegedly grabbed the victim “by the hair and pushed her head (face first) into the center console of the vehicle,” with the victim “losing a small chunk of hair” in the course of the assault.
Perkins also allegedly took the victim’s cell phone from the victim and told her that “he threw her phone out the window.”
Responding officers observed the victim’s “left ear to be red and swollen at the top of it,” and she “also had dried blood on her lip.” The victim told police that “her head hurt all over from her hair being grabbed and pulled and some hair pulled out.”
Perkins is held in the Dallas County Jail on a $4,000 cash or surety bond. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing June 25 in Dallas County District Court.
*A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
