Teen charged with felony domestic assault

WOONSOCKET – Police charged a 15-year-old boy with a felony assault after he hurled a cell phone at his girlfriend, cutting her lip and breaking a tooth.

The girl, who is 14 years old, was transported to Landmark Medical Center by her mother for treatment.

Police said they invoked the domestic violence statute in the case because the two teenagers had been romantically involved for at least two months. The youth was charged with domestic felony assault and battery.

The victim told police she was hanging a blanket “for privacy” in the bedroom of his Read Avenue home when they got into an argument because he refused to help her with the chore.

After repeatedly asking him to lend a hand, she became upset and began packing her belongings. At that point, the boyfriend began enraged, stood up and threw his cell phone at her with great force, she told police.

“She stated that her mouth felt funny and proceeded to use her tongue to feel her front teeth,” Officer Justin Mowry’s police report says. “She immediately noticed that her front tooth was broken and was missing a piece of it.”

Police interviewed the girl at LMC, where they observed that she had also suffered a severe laceration to her lower lip.

Investigators looked for the broken piece of her front tooth at the Read Avenue residence, but they were unable to locate it.

The boyfriend told officers he threw the phone only after his girlfriend had struck him several times about the head and face with her hands, but police said there was no physical evidence to back up his story.

The offender’s identity is redacted from police reports about the alleged assault because he is a juvenile. Also, The Call does not publish the names of accused offenders who are under 18.

Depending on how serious the resulting injury is, a felony domestic assault carries six to 20 years in prison under the state’s criminal statutes. Because the offender is a juvenile, the case will be adjudicated in Family Court instead of Superior Court – the adult venue.