West Des Moines man arrested for allegedly breaking woman’s nose

A West Des Moines man was arrested Saturday on a Dallas County warrant for assault after allegedly breaking a woman’s nose.

Steven Duane Koethe, 45, of West Des Moines was charged with first-offense domestic abuse assault with intent to inflict serious injury.

The incident began about 3 a.m. Friday in the 900 block of S. 60th Street in West Des Moines, where officers of the West Des Moines Police Department responded to a report of a domestic disturbance.

The officers made contact with the victim, who said “that after arguing for most of the night, she knocked water onto” Koethe, who allegedly “chased her down the stairs and pushed her into a wall and a couch,” according to court records.

The victim told the officers that she was trying to leave the residence when Koethe allegedly “hit her in her nose with his forearm.”

The officers observed on the victim “a laceration on her nose, and medics on scene advised that she probably sustained a broken nose,” according to court records.

An arrest warrant was ordered Saturday in Dallas County District Court, and Koethe was held in the Dallas County Jail on a $2,000 cash or surety bond. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Nov. 24 in Dallas County District Court.

Koethe was convicted of assault in 1995 in Johnson County District Court. He was arrested on a charge of domestic abuse assault causing bodily injury or mental illness in 2012, but the charge was dismissed in Dallas County District Court. He was arrested on a charge of domestic abuse assault causing bodily injury or mental illness in June 2020, but the charge was dismissed in Polk County District Court.

*A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendant is innocent until and unless proven guilty.