A Rochester man is facing felony assault charges for allegedly beating up a woman twice between Sept. 15 and Sept. 20.
The man, identified as Matthew Dennis Rieley Sweeney, 29, was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail just after 8:50 a.m. on Sept. 23 after the woman’s coworker reported the assaults.
The woman had reportedly “shown up to work” at her place of employment in Thurston County and told her co-worker “she had been beaten up by her boyfriend.”
Sweeney is accused of grabbing the woman, throwing her to the ground, choking her and punching her on Sept. 20 after he “accused her of cheating on him” because she “slept with her phone under her pillow,” according to court documents. The woman reportedly told law enforcement “Sweeney had done the same thing approximately a week before.”
The deputies who took the woman’s report on Sept. 23 noted she had visible injuries to her face.
When contacted by deputies, Sweeney allegedly admitted to getting into a physical dispute with the woman on Sept. 20 after he wouldn’t let her shut her car door, prompting her to kick and push him, according to court documents. Sweeney claimed the woman injured herself by grabbing him, causing them both to fall down. Sweeney said “she then left for work and he went back to bed,” according to court documents.
Sweeney was charged Monday, Sept. 25, with two counts of second-degree assault and two counts of fourth-degree assault, all with domestic violence qualifiers, in Lewis County Superior Court.
Bail is set at $50,000.
“This is a significant risk to safety, not just for the community but the victim as well,” Judge Joely Yeagher said of the allegations during Sweeney’s preliminary hearing in Lewis County Superior Court on Monday, Sept. 25.
Arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 28.
A no-contact order protecting the woman is in place for the duration of the case.
