OGDEN, Utah, Aug. 26, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — A nonchalant brawler has been jailed without bail after his second felony assault charge in two months.
Matthew Bauer, 32, faces hearings in St. George and Ogden next week on two felony cases that sent his victims to the hospital, according to charging documents.
The 6-foot-2, 300-pound Bauer was arrested Sunday after a beating in Ogden that left his victim with multiple fractures to his face and bruising to his neck, according to charging documents.
“Matthew does not seem to believe this is a serious violation, and expected me to issue him a citation or promise to appear,” his arresting officer wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
The officer described the victim’s injuries when visited in the hospital as “the entire left side of the victims face was heavily swollen with his eye entirely forced shut, his right eye was bruising, his lips and left ear were bruised and swollen, and several lacerations were across the face and head.”
The victim also had scratches, welting and bruising developing on his throat “consistent in my experience with strangulation” in addition to the multiple facial fractures.
The officer wrote that Bauer admitted to choking the man “temporarily” during a fight, but claimed the injuries to the face were from another man who fought the victim before him. He is charged with second-degree felony aggravated assault with serious injury, compared to a third-degree felony assault charge pending in Washington County for an assault alleged in Hurricane June 27.
He faces a Tuesday status conference in Ogden’s 2nd District Court on the new case and a Thursday scheduling conference in St. George’s 5th District Court on the Hurricane assault charge.
In that case he is accused of fighting with a man he roomed with in Ogden, allegedly clubbing him in the back of the head with a bottle after fisticuffs had subsided, according to charging documents.
He was released on $5,000 bail in St. George but has been ordered held without bail in the Weber County Jail on the new case.
