A MAN was arrested on Wednesday last week after his girlfriend accused him of kicking her on the thigh and breaking her right ring finger in the presence of their two-month old daughter in their house in Oleai.
At an initial hearing following the arrest of Jerome Lucas Jr., Associate Judge Kenneth Govendo imposed a $5,000 bail on the defendant, who was remanded to the custody of the Department of Corrections.
His preliminary hearing was set for Nov. 1, 2023.
During a bail hearing on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, Judge Govendo allowed the defendant to post a $5,000 unsecured appearance bond. Lucas, 21, was then released to a third-party custodian — his mother — and was ordered to have no contact with the victim.
He was charged with assault and battery, disturbing the peace to include domestic violence and interfering with a domestic violence report.
His girlfriend told police that Lucas kicked her on the left thigh and twisted her hand causing a fracture to her right ring finger.
She said prior to the incident on Sept. 28, 2023, Lucas got home at around 6 p.m., after getting a haircut. She said she asked him to watch their daughter while she washed the baby’s feeding bottles. She also told Lucas she needed to take a nap and asked him to wake her up after one hour.
She said Lucas “got mad because she reminded him twice to wake her up in an hour.”
When she left the bedroom, Lucas told her he was going to “smack her face” so she went back inside. At this juncture, she said Lucas started yelling at her before kicking her on her left thigh causing her to fall “and to start crying in pain.”
When they were both going out of the bedroom, she said Lucas tried to grab her. She defended herself by throwing a cooking pot and a bottle of dishwashing soap at Lucas, who got hold of her right hand and twisted it, she said.
She added that Lucas fractured her finger when she tried to free herself. She eventually left their house and went to her mother’s home in Puerto Rico.
Dr. Dirk Tanner of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. found that the victim’s fourth metacarpal shaft was fractured. Police, for their part, reviewed the crime scene technician’s photos taken after the time of incident, and found a bruise on the victim’s left thigh.
