by Brooke Pritchard
“Mike did this to me.”
Michael Henry Riley is facing a charge of corporal injury to an intimate partner, after a dispute in Winters in May of 2018. His intimate partner is his girlfriend of five years.
The first person to the stand was his girlfriend. She did not offer much information, other than they were drinking Ancient Age whiskey at the time of the fight. When asked who was more often the aggressor in the relationship, she offered that it was a 50-50 split.
The second person to the stand was Corporal Creighton Urquhart from the Winters Police Department. He contended that he has worked with the couple for several years.
According to Urquhart, the fight began with a verbal argument when Michael Riley accused his girlfriend with cheating on him with his uncle. She was upset with the accusation, so she went to collect her stuff. When she asked where her chair was, Mr. Riley told her there were consequences for her actions and that he threw the chair down the hill. The girlfriend took his propane tank and threw it down the hill. This action caused the two to wrestle down the hill, ending with Michael Riley sitting on top of her and throwing punches.
A bystander saw Michael Riley on top of his girlfriend and immediately yelled for him to get off of her. Mr. Riley immediately fled the scene.
When Urquhart arrived at the scene, he described the girlfriend’s face to be covered in blood. Her hair was disheveled with some foxtail weeds and “stickers,” caused from the cacti and weeds located on the hill. Crying, the girlfriend told Urquhart that “Mike did this to me.”
The defense wishes to lighten the sentence by making the felony into a misdemeanor.
Michael Riley currently lives in an abandoned home on the top of that hill. His girlfriend lives with Mr. Riley’s uncle and takes care of Mr. Riley’s great uncle.
The arraignment for the felony is on May 24 at 10 am.
