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Outrage, financial support followed woman’s beating
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · October 20, 2016


Residents showed an outpouring of support for a domestic violence victim hospitalized last week, raising nearly $10,000 since the Oct. 8 or Oct. 9 incident.


As to her condition, the father of the 35-year-old woman stated that “her bones and bruises are still healing.”

“But every day is better than before,” he said, adding that she may soon begin physical therapy rehabilitation.

When she arrived at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics on Oct. 10, she was listed in critical condition.

Friends are posting pictures on the victim’s Facebook page of them wearing purple to denote domestic violence awareness, and some made purple ribbons with her name. October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

West Branch High School Head Football Coach Butch Pedersen said the varsity football team will wear purple tape on their shoes at Friday’s Senior Night game and a friend is asking around about the possibility of a “purple out” for that game.

The West Branch Lions Club President Mike Quinlan said the group invited the Domestic Violence Intervention Program of Iowa City to speak at its meeting 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, at Community State Bank, and opened the meeting to the public.

“It’s a pretty emotional time right now in West Branch,” Quinlan said.

DVIP’s Kristie Fortmann-Doser will speak at the meeting.

DVIP sent a press release Oct. 18, stating that Oct. 28 is “Wear Purple Day.”

“This is an opportunity to show victims they are not alone. Domestic violence is an incredibly isolating crime – knowing your neighbors, loved ones and colleagues are standing together to support victims can be just the strength someone struggling with abuse needs to reach out,”Fortmann-Doser wrote in a statement.

She offered DVIP’s hotline number — 800-373-1043 — which offers free and confidential support.

“Emergency services in West Branch include responding to law enforcement on domestic violence calls, and victims at hospitals seeking emergency medical care,” she said.

The victim’s father said friends, co-workers, law enforcement and the community have shown such support that he called it “phenomenally humbling.”

“Everybody’s just been so wonderful,” he said.

The victim was found in a bedroom in the 600 block of West Orange Street the morning of Monday, Oct. 10, after Michael Thomas Kelley, 39, of that address called the West Branch Police Department.

At the hospital, she was diagnosed with bleeding on the brain, a torn spleen, a possible torn liver, a possible broken jaw and broken teeth, according to court records.

WBPD arrested Kelley and charged him with willful injury — causing serious injury, a Class C felony, and domestic abuse assault with intent to inflict serious injury, an aggravated misdemeanor.

Bond is set at $30,000; he faces up to 10 years in prison on the Class C felony and up to two years on the aggravated misdemeanor.

Cedar County court records state that Kelley asked at 8:18 a.m. Monday for WBPD Chief Mike Horihan to “stop by”; Horihan arrived at 8:23 a.m. and Kelley directed him to the bedroom, where Horihan found the victim “laying in the bedroom.”

Horihan said the victim appeared “very confused” and her face was “badly swollen,”; blood appeared on the floor and bed. The police chief asked if Kelley had hit her.

“He was very nervous. He mentioned that this happened a day earlier and he kept her home thinking she would get better,” Horihan wrote in his report. “He said something about his memory was a blur, that he wanted to turn himself in or go somewhere. He was very nervous about (the victim’s) parents. Mr. Kelley said he would meet at the sheriff’s department.”

Horihan reported calling for first responders and an ambulance at 8:24 a.m.

The police chief said he drove to Cedar County Sheriff’s Department and interviewed Kelley, reading him his Miranda rights at 9:24 a.m. and Kelley responding that he did not want an attorney at that time.

“He told me that he was loaded up on Adderall and was drinking large amounts of alcohol. He stated he was extremely drunk. He was drinking Jack Daniels,” Horihan wrote.

Then Kelley said “something happened in the bedroom at 2, 3 or 4 o’clock Sunday,” read the report.

“He reported that they were not fighting and that (the victim) didn’t do anything wrong,” wrote the police chief.

Kelley reported waking up at 9 a.m. and found the victim “beat up, not in good shape and not herself,” read Horihan’s report.

When the police chief began asking how the victim received her injuries, Kelly asked for an attorney.

Horihan reported that the victim’s mother told him what doctors had diagnosed, and that the bleeding appears “on both sides of her brain.”

Neighbors report seeing law enforcement and family members at the home later Oct. 10 and also on Oct. 11. The Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Investigation and Criminalistics Laboratory are joining the WBPD and Cedar County Attorney’s Office in the investigation.

Horihan released a statement Oct. 12 that he asked the DCI to assist “based on the severity of injuries sustained by the victim.”

“It was apparent the woman had been severely beaten,” the release stated.

Friends of the victim began posting messages on Kelley’s Facebook page on Wednesday, saying “you beat this beautiful woman almost to her death,” “my heart is broken for her” and “I hope he gets the longest punishment he can!”

Seventh Judicial Court Magistrate Judge Tamra Roberts on Oct. 12 appointed Davenport attorney Joel Andrew Walker to represent Kelley. Kelley was ordered to have no contact with the victim.

Kelley, through his attorney, waived a preliminary hearing that was set for 9:30 a.m. Oct. 19,

If convicted, he faces up to two years and between $625 and $6,250 in fines for the domestic abuse assault; and faces up to 10 years and a fine between $1,000 and $10,000 for the willful injury charge.

In 2008, Kelley entered a negotiated guilty plea to assault causing bodily injury, a serious misdemeanor. He was originally charged with domestic abuse assault, also a serious misdemeanor.

In that case, he was sentenced to 30 days — with 28 days suspended — in jail and a fine.