LOGAN, Utah, Sept. 4, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A Logan police officer faces assault charges following an investigation into incidents of domestic violence that police say occurred over the past year.
Michael Ryan Montoya, 31, of Wellsville, was arrested Aug. 18 and charged Aug. 22 with one count of assault with substantial bodily injury, a class A misdemeanor; and two counts of assault, two counts of domestic violence in the presence of child, and one count of unlawful detention and unlawful detention of a minor, all class B misdemeanors.
Montoya has been placed on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the investigation, Logan police told Gephardt Daily.
The Cache County Sheriff’s Office began its investigation July 18 when the alleged victim reported multiple incidents of domestic violence over the past year, according to a probable cause statement filed in Logan’s 1st District Court.
Following an argument about two months ago, the woman told sheriff’s deputies Montoya “plowed” into her while she stood in a hallway outside a bathroom door, causing her to fall backward and hit her head on the wall.
The woman told deputies Montoya used “his chest and bodyweight to hit her,” court documents state. She also sustained bruising on her arm in the fall, which she documented by taking digital photos, according to the sheriff’s office.
The woman sustained injuries consistent with a concussion in the fall, according to the probable cause statement. In text messages about the incident between the woman and Montoya, she states “she has a headache but does not dare seek medical attention,” the statement continues.
Montoya also discourages the woman from seeking medical attention in the text messages, court documents state.
During that conversation, Montoya asked the woman what she “will say when she seeks medical assistance, saying that if she tells them that she was knocked down during an argument that they would have to report it to law enforcement,” the statement continues.
Montoya admitted to “having made contact” with the woman during the argument but stated in a text message, “I didn’t intentionally knock you down. I wanted to walk away,” according to the sheriff’s office.
“Ultimately [the woman] did not seek medical attention at that time due to being too fearful to do so,” the statement continues.
In a separate incident, the woman described an argument where Montoya “got angry enough at her to use physical force and pinned her against the south wall in the kitchen for several minutes while he continued to yell at her in order to force her to hear what he had to say,” according to the probable cause statement.
The woman told deputies Montoya’s “arms were outstretched to the side of her and that his weight and chest were pinning her to the wall,” the statement continues.
A minor child was interviewed at the Cache County Children’s Justice Center during the investigation, according to the sheriff’s office. The child reported seeing Montoya push the woman up against the wall on two separate occasions.
