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| Updated: 9/05/2012 4:34 pm |
Published: 9/05/2012 2:26 pm |
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The former girlfriend of state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson was charged Wednesday with third-degree domestic battery after allegedly hitting the Republican with a preserved alligator head during a dispute.
Julie McGee, 39, of Little Rock, was booked into the Pulaski County Jail early Wednesday after Hutchinson called police to his home late Tuesday night.
The incident report said Hutchinson was bleeding from the left side of his head, where he was allegedly hit with "a small preserved alligator head."
The report says Hutchinson and McGee were both taken to a police substation. Hutchinson was not charged.
"It was a bad night that's turned into an even worse day today," Hutchinson, a Little Rock attorney, said in a phone interview Wednesday. "It's been a bad 14 hours."
Police said McGee claimed Hutchinson threw her onto a couch but investigators discounted that assertion. The report says McGee had "a swollen lip, scratches to her wrists and redness to her left arm," but notes "that the injuries to McGee were inconsistent with her statements and they did not appear to be contemporaneous with the current incident."
No listed phone number for McGee could be located. Booking information at the jail didn't indicate whether she has an attorney, and her case hadn't been posted yet in online court records.
Hutchinson said he didn't want to go into detail about what happened.
"I'm reluctant to say anything because it's likely - at least possible - I'll be a witness in a criminal proceeding," Hutchinson said. "This has been an ongoing problem. Last night I felt I had no choice but to call 911, and so I did."
Hutchinson, a divorced father of three, served three terms in the state House and won a Senate seat in 2010. He's running for re-election in his district, which includes parts of Pulaski and Saline counties. There is no Democratic opponent on the Nov. 6 ballot.
Hutchinson has been mentioned as a potential candidate for attorney general in 2014. When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal health care law earlier this year, he joined Republicans at a news conference and said the ruling could help the GOP in its bid to take over the state Legislature.
"No longer can state legislative candidates say 'Well, that's a federal issue and I'm not going to take a position on it,' " Hutchinson said in June.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
