Michael Hoover
By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 59-year-old ex-convict appeared in court Monday by video from the Payne County Jail where he remains held on $10,000 bail on charges of choking and punching a female relative at his home in the Cimarron Trailer Park on N. Little in Cushing.
Due to his criminal record, Michael Nelson Hoover could be imprisoned for 20 years to life if convicted of domestic assault and battery by strangulation. Hoover could be given a one-year jail term if convicted of punching the woman repeatedly in her face.
Hoover was arrested at his home at 6:09 pm on Jan. 18 by Cushing Police Officer Garvis Scott Thomas, who was sent there at 5:51 pm due to an open 911 line, his affidavit said.
“Dispatch advised the call was plotting to the far southeast corner. Dispatch further advised she could hear a female crying and a male yelling and cursing,” the affidavit said.
When the Cushing officer told Hoover that he was responding to an open 911 call, “Hoover turned and said, ‘you called the cops on me again?"” the affidavit alleged.
“At this time, a female exited the trailer and was crying and walking quickly away from the trailer…I could smell alcohol coming from Hoover and observed him wobbly on his feet.
“I asked Hoover how much he had to drink, and he stated, ‘a pint of whiskey,"” the Cushing officer alleged in his affidavit.
Asked how long his female relative had been staying with him, Hoover said about four years, the affidavit alleged.
Away from Hoover, the officer talked to the woman, who was still crying, the affidavit said.
She said, “Hoover struck her with a closed fist approximately five times in the face,” which was red, as was her throat, the affidavit alleged.
She said, “she had difficulty breathing while Hoover was choking her,” the affidavit alleged.
The woman had red marks on her right arm with spots of blood, as well as on her shirt, the affidavit alleged.
She said that she wanted to press charges against Hoover, but she denied medical attention due to religious reasons, the affidavit said.
Asked if he had assaulted the woman, “Hoover denied any allegations. Hoover then turned around and said, ‘just take me to jail,"” the affidavit alleged.
At the Cushing City Jail, both of Hoover’s hands had dried blood that appeared to be coming from his knuckles behind each pointer finger; Hoover refused to have his hands photographed, the affidavit alleged.
According to court records, Hoover had previously been convicted of three felonies:
* possession of a substance used as a precursor to manufacture methamphetamine in Cushing in 2011, for which he was initially placed on 15 years of probation with Drug Court from which he was terminated in 2012 and then given a five-year prison term of which he served about two years;
* drunk driving in 2009, for which he was placed on five years of probation in 2011 with Drug Court from which he was terminated in 2012 when his probation was revoked to prison;
* concealing stolen property in Logan County in 2011, for which he was placed on five years of probation in 2012 except for 30 days in jail.
