A Van Meter man was arrested Thursday at the end of an alleged week-long domestic disturbance.
Derek William Insco, 31, of 522 Lynnwood Lane, #2, Van Meter, was charged with first-offense domestic abuse assault, first-offense domestic abuse assault-injury or mental illness, false imprisonment and fifth-degree criminal mischief-hate crime.
A law enforcement investigation began Thursday when the Van Meter Police Department responded to the residence on Lynnwood Lane after a neighbor reported a domestic assault in progress. The neighbor said “the domestic has been going on for a week.”
According to court records, a witness reported “the victim was trying to leave the apartment” Thursday but Insco “would not allow it.” After a “physical altercation between the two parties,” the victim left the residence but later “returned, and another fight ensued,” the witness said.
The witness said “she observed the male strike himself and tell the female she was going to jail for hitting him.”
According to court records, the victim told law enforcement “that last Tuesday they had gotten into a fight,” and Insco “blacked her eye and scratched her face,” but “she did not report it.”
The officer observed that “the injuries were still visible on her face” Thursday, “consisting of a swollen and purple right eye and a deep scratch across her face from her nose to below the right eye,” according to court records.
Insco allegedly took the victim’s cellphone “and destroyed the screen, making it inoperable.”
The victim said Insco “was physically blocking the door” of the apartment when “he grabbed her by the back of the head and was hitting her in the back of the head.”
Insco claimed the incident was “mutual combat” and the victim “struck him in the face” and “kicked him in the groin.”
Insco is held in the Dallas County Jail in advance of an initial appearance in Dallas County District Court.
*A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
