By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Perry man with a history of domestic violence charges in Noble County has been charged with punching his wife in the head and pulling out her hair while she was holding their daughter at a house in Stillwater.
Eric Donald Rodebush, 33, could be given as much as a four-year prison term if convicted in Payne County of domestic violence as a subsequent offense, court records show.
Rodebush remains free on $10,000 bail pending an April 6 court appearance at which he can seek a preliminary hearing on the felony charge.
Stillwater Police Officer Josh Rudluff was sent shortly before 8 p.m. on Feb. 29 to a Stillwater house where a man “stated his friend just beat up his wife,” an affidavit alleged.
“As I was walking toward the kitchen, I noticed a large fresh blood stain on the carpet just before entering the kitchen,” where he saw that the victim “had a very large knot on the right side of her forehead,” the Stillwater officer alleged in his affidavit.
“Her right eye was black and swollen. She was still bleeding from a couple small lacerations she had on her face. She stated the attack happened over an hour ago,” the affidavit alleged.
“She also had bruising on her right arm on the lower part of her bicep. It looked like bruising consistent with someone grabbing her arm very hard,” the affidavit alleged.
The victim said she was in the kitchen with her daughter sitting on the counter, while she was helping fix dinner at 6:15 p.m., but when she turned around for a minute, her daughter fell off the counter, so she picked her up and began to comfort her, the affidavit alleged.
The victim said she thought her daughter fell on her bottom and was not injured, but her husband began trying to take her daughter away from her, the affidavit alleged.
The victim said her husband started saying derogatory things to her, so she yelled at him to get away and left the kitchen, the affidavit alleged.
In the living room, her husband continued to grab her and try to take her daughter away, the affidavit alleged.
His friend saw Rodebush’s two boys and decided to take them out of the room, the affidavit alleged.
“While he was walking outside, he told Eric (Rodebush) that he needed to stop and cool down,” but while the friend and boys were outside, Rodebush became physical toward his wife, the affidavit alleged.
The victim said that while her husband had a hold of her, “she lightly slapped him to try to get him to go away,” the affidavit alleged.
While the victim was holding their daughter, Rodebush used a closed fist and punched his wife above the right eye, the affidavit alleged.
The victim said “it knocked her back and he used another closed fist and punched her just below her right eye,” the affidavit alleged.
The victim said she closed her eyes, fell down, and as she was on the ground, her husband punched her on the top of her head, the affidavit alleged.
“She stated during the attack she may have scratched him in the face. (She) also said at some point, Eric pulled a bunch of her hair out, but she doesn’t know when that occurred,” the affidavit alleged.
Rodebush was contacted at about 12:15 a.m. on March 1 at his Perry residence by the Noble County undersheriff, who turned him over to Stillwater police at Highway 51 and Highway 86, the affidavit said.
When the Stillwater officer asked Rodebush what happened, “He stated he didn’t really know. He stated he had been drinking and things escalated when they shouldn’t have,” the affidavit alleged.
Rodebush “had a few scratches on the left side of his face,” the affidavit said. The victim filed for divorce six days later, court records show.
In Noble County, Rodebush had pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges of domestic assault and battery, one occurring in 2015 and the other in 2016, for which he was placed on two years’ probation under deferred sentences in 2016, court records show.
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