Charges dismissed against Pittsfield Township woman accused of stabbing husband
Authorities dismissed assault charges against a Pittsfield Township woman accused of stabbing her husband during a fight.
Court records show Sarah Anne Smith, 49, no longer faces charges of assault with a dangerous weapon and aggravated domestic violence for the Aug. 18 incident at her home.
Pittsfield Township Detective Lt. Sean McCormick said investigators were prepared for a scheduled preliminary hearing earlier this month, but the victim didn’t show up for court.
Officers responded to emergency calls from a pizzeria shortly before 9 p.m. Aug. 18 and found the victim bleeding from the shoulder and arm, reports said. The man told police he walked there from his home in the 2400 block of Hawks Drive after his wife attacked him during a dispute. They were both reportedly intoxicated.
The man was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening wounds and recovered, police said. Officers arrested Smith without incident when they went to her home. The couple’s 12-year-old son was also home at the time, but it was unclear from reports what he may have witnessed.
McCormick said officers personally delivered the court summons to the 59-year-old man, but prosecutors had little choice but to dismiss the charges without a cooperative victim.
Art Aisner is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 723-623-2530.
Comments
Marti Bombyk
Tue, Sep 21, 2010 : 11:14 a.m.
It is very traumatic for children to witness the arrest of a parent in the family's home. There are over 10 million children in the US who have an incarcerated parent. That's just the children whose parents are convicted and serve time. You can imagine how many more children experience their parent's arrest and its aftermath, evenif they are aquitted or, as in cases like this, that are not adjudicated. What happens to the unattended children when the parents are removed by the police? What arrangements are made by the police prior to the removal of the parent if the children are alone? Equally tragic, what type of mayhem did they witness prior to the arrest? Where were the neighbors? Did any body see the "signs" of domestic violence? Did anybody do anything to help? I wish we could have better coverage of these stories and more public education on how they system actually works and how well our community is handling these issues to protect all children and to support families under duress. Though its prevalence can rise during high unemployment, there's no excuse for domestic violence. This is not just a "mind your own businesss" personal problem for certain families and individuals. As a community of concerned citizens, we need more public education to help us responsibly prevent domestic violence. Hope that future stories address this. I did appreciate the Crime Prevention column last week on how dangerous it is for officers to make arrests. In the past, this was a barrier to professional arrests. But it is great how SafeHouse is working with the police as well as the survivors. The community needs to generously support SafeHouse, as it is a godsend to those who use its services.
squidlover
Tue, Sep 21, 2010 : 6:03 a.m.
The problem is, if the victim doesn't show up to an assault hearing, the case will be dismissed. Man or woman. The scary thing is that their son witnessed this. What kind of damage do you think that caused? Not to mention the fact that these people live very close to us in a neighborhood just a few blocks from an elementary school. Lots of little kids. I realize this was a domestic incident and not a random attack, but if you can't control your anger at home, it will spill out into the community too.
KeepingItReal
Mon, Sep 20, 2010 : 1:39 p.m.
Sarah Anne Smith better be glad that she is a woman who was accused of a domestic violence incident. Guarantee, if this was a man, whether the woman wanted to press charges or not, they would have been filed and prosecuted.