Justin Douglas Smutz, 25, was arrested following the 12:45 a.m. incident and arraigned Monday in Muskegon County on the following charges: third-degree child abuse, a felony; unlawful imprisonment, a felony; interfering with 911 communications, a felony; second-offense domestic violence, a misdemeanor; and misdemeanor assault and battery.
Lt. Jon Gale said police responded to 2841 McDermott, the home of a 23-year-old woman and mother of Smutz's infant son with whom he already faced a prior domestic criminal charge.
"He came over to the home, and it appeared he had been drinking. The (mother of his child) told him several times to leave. Gale said Smutz had previously been ordered by the court to stay away from the woman and was out on bond at the time of Saturday's incident.
"Another male showed up with a 17-year-old woman. Once they arrived, they saw how he was treating her, and they told her to call the police. But he pushed her several times when she tried to leave to call 911," Gale said.
But somehow the 23-year-old woman managed to leave the home without her child to use a neighbor's phone to call 911. She returned to the home where she found Smutz enraged, according to the police report.
"He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her around the room. He held her down and was choking her and punched holes in the doors," Gale said.
Smutz also allegedly shoved the 17-year-old woman while she was holding the infant, the police report said.
"As Smutz pushed her out of the way, she fell to the floor with a lit cigarette. The cigarette hit the baby in the head when the woman was pushed. The baby's head was also scratched," Gale said.
When police arrived, they heard yelling inside the house. Officers looked inside, could see people, and then knocked on a window. The lights went off and those inside moved away from the window, Gale said.
"Smutz first put the mother of his child in the bedroom and told her not to move and then ordered her to the bathroom. He told her to shut up so the cops didn't hear her talking," Gale said.
One officer saw one of the women through a bedroom window "mouthing that she needed help," Gale said.
"She looked very frightened," he said.
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