She was choking me and pushing me on the ground because I didn't want to talk about my financials after a night out. Do you feel like you were about to pass out or do you felt like you couldn't breathe or this relationship is not okay? Take her to where? She was like, "Can you just take me to jail instead? I don't want her to get in trouble." Yikes. Okay. On January 18th, 2022, dispatch received calls from both the victim and the suspect about one another. This is a case where the officers have to determine who is going to jail. Do you agree with who the officers end up arresting? You want to grab one of them and just talk to them in a kitchen or something and I'll talk to them right after. All right. I'm going to a concert Saturday and I got Touch Mega tomorrow. What concert? It's called Two Friends. Two friends? Yeah. It's something new. It's kind of EDM, but not really. God, EDM. EDM makes my brain hurt. I ain't got much of a brain anyway, so I ain't got much of a brain anyways. Hi. Hey. What's going on? What's going on tonight? Can you think who called? We actually both did. You did? Okay. Okay, I can talk to you over here. Can I put on some shoes? I'm gonna go ahead and step in and talk to her real quick. Yes. Excuse me. You don't mind? Mercedes. Hey, so uh what's going on? First off, what's your name? My name is Leah. Lee? Leah? Leah, were you the first one to call? No. Okay. What's going on? Um, we got into an argument and I came out here to sleep because she said that she needed space. So, I said, "Okay." And I came out here and Mercedes, please stop. And I came out here to sleep. And she came out here and she woke me up and she was mad that I came out here, okay? and she shook me awake and I said, "What is wrong? Do you want to talk?" And then I went in there to talk to her and then that is when she lashed out at me and attacked me. I'm 104. And I defended myself and she told me that she wasn't giving her all. Mercedes, please stop. You defended yourself and she said she wasn't giving her all. Yeah, I defended myself by pushing back at her and she know that she wasn't giving her all and that she could hurt me if she wanted to. And I said, "Okay, go ahead." Because So, at any moment, did you feel like did you feel scared after she said that? Yes. Feel like your life was in danger? Yeah. I called the non-emergency on Christmas Day because I didn't know if I had enough evidence to report a domestic [snorts] violence case. And then I said, "What do I do if she's deleted?" One second. 54 central. I said, "What do I do if she deleted recordings?" And he said, "Do we have any previous history with this location, specifically on the non-emergency line?" So, she deleted what recordings? It was like voice recordings. It was like in the voice memo app of iPhone. So, she went through your phone and deleted stuff. She actually took it from me. I was trying to leave. When was that? Christmas day. Christmas day. That's the 25th. All right. Where did everything happen? Um, it actually happened in the bedroom. What? Do you mind if I take a look? Yeah. You show me. [snorts] Go ahead. What about the current two callers? 104. Did you guys just move in here or something? Did you guys just move in here? back in August. Okay. Mercedes. So, um, so it happened in here where at specifically mostly on the bed, mostly whenever she started kicking me and I pushed her off of me. Okay. And then that's when we hit the books. You guys hit the books. Which ones? These. They were on our nightstand. Let's move to anything. Okay. And then we both ended up in the bladder. Okay. Okay. The only thing I have is just a burn. Let me see. So, you have that rug burn? Yeah. It's nothing. What's uh what's going on with your with your with your neck? You got something on your neck or She grabbed me by the neck and pushed me. Grabbed you by the neck and pushed you. Did she uh hold you by the neck? Yeah. Did she I mean, so was it just a grab and throw or was it a hold and push you up against the wall? It was a hold and it was a push and then So, how long did she hold your knife for? Not long because then I used my arm to push her. I see I see something right here too. Yeah, [snorts] those scratches. Yeah. I see your arm. Can you lift up your shirt for me? All right, I'm probably going to have the other female officer come in here and take pictures of this. You might have to take your shirt off because it seems like things are going up all over if you don't mind. She said that um no one would believe me have self marks. Can you lift up your shirt more? So these red spots right here, are they is that something you usually have or is that new? No, this is from her. This is like acne. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm talking about [snorts] Yeah, I'm talking about this. No, like all of this is not Okay. Hey, do you live here? Okay. Who are you? Just the other roommate. Okay, that's fine. Um, any marks on your face or anything? I don't think so. [snorts] I'm crying. Um, I do have to ask you a question. Um, did at any moment when she was grabbing your neck, did she feel like do you feel like you were about to pass out or do you felt like you couldn't breathe or did you feel like you were about to lose consciousness completely? It just felt like excessive force. Okay. [snorts] It didn't feel like she was holding it very long. Okay. So, if you don't mind, could you stay in here for me and I'll talk to her real quick? If you if you don't mind, we'll just step out. Yeah. You and I. Yep. So, quick question. So, apparently there's a lot going on between the two of them. What can you tell me that you've have you heard anything? Have you seen anything? I didn't know anything was going on. I literally just woke up. I didn't know anything was happening. So, okay. What about before? Like when you weren't awake, do you do you notice them arguing? Do you notice anything like that? I mean, they argue, but I've never seen Have you ever seen get them get physical at all or anything? All right, I appreciate that. Uh, I'm gonna Don't go to bed yet. Don't go back to bed. I'm going to have to get your information. Okay. What's your name? That's a nice name. All right. Um Okay. Just give me one second. Okay. Maybe I'm going to have the female officer come inside and talk to you. Okay. Um, now these um, as far as the I hate to point it out, but as far as the bags in your eyes, did she hit you in the eyes at all? Anything like that? Just from crying. Okay. Give me one second. All right. Do you mind? Okay, close your eyes. Right. Okay. Yeah. I don't think there's anything like physically other than this, but other than that, I don't think there's anything. Okay. Give us just a second. Okay. Yeah. Should I go back? No. No. Just hang out here. Okay. My name is officer. Um, what's your name? What's your name? Explain to me what happened. Um, so basically we were in a fight earlier tonight. It was like a Christmas. It was about Christmas, whatever. Um, what happened? What what happened with the fight? Uh, so we were in bed. Um, and I think what started was she was like, "You're not thoughtful about your gifts or something." And I was like, I can't remember exactly how it went, but I was like about to read her cuz I tried this um Christmas, whatever. And she was like, "I almost have to ask for everything." And I was like, "What?" Um, and so she's like, "I think I just need a moment. I need like some time tonight to like whatever, like not be kind of hurt about this. Um, and so she at that point did give me my space. Um, she just then she got out of bed. Um, I heard her in the bathroom a little bit. And so at this point it was I wouldn't I wouldn't say 2:00, just before 2:00, but I did notice time at around 2:00. Um, and so I was like, "Okay, I'm going to give her some Oh, she's seeing me. She's in the bathroom. Around 2:30, I like notice the time again. And I was like, "Okay, well, let me go check on her um to make sure she's not being hurt or like hurting herself or anything because if she was, I wanted to be able to be like, "Hey, like you're okay. Like, I'll talk you out of this, whatever." Um, so I went to look for her in the bathroom. I noticed that she wasn't in the bathroom. And so I was like, "Okay, next place. She probably is. I'm on the couch." So, I turned on the light, saw her on the couch. I kind of like shook her awake to make sure she was okay. Um, I was shaking her awake and she started saying some stuff to me, but I like could not understand her. So, I kind of like got closer and was shaking her like, "What are you talking about?" And I think she was just saying stuff in her sleep, like in her like sleep awake thing. Um, so I was like pushing her like being like, "What? What? What are you saying? What?" And so, like I was like kind of like leaning my head closer to her being like, "What are you saying?" And I literally could not make out anything she was saying. After like I a few minutes I realized that like she was just sleep talking. So I was like, "Okay, well you can just sleep whatever. Like I'll just go back in the bedroom." Um she called me back into the bedroom. Um so let me pause right there. Yes. All right. So So December 25th, Christmas Day. Was a uh was a phone call made to a non-emergency 911? I think so. So she I didn't actually know if she made a call. Um, I was informed of that today by her by her. And yeah, I was informed by her of Why' she tell you? Um, she, so when we got back from the bedroom, we were like doing our thing. She was like, "I already reported you, whatever." And I was like, "What are you talking about?" And she was like, "I already reported you. Um, this is how I know about this, whatever, whatever." And I was like, "Okay." So, um, when I heard her go back out there, I was like, [snorts] "All right, you can make report." Like, I need to make sure that I made reports because I haven't made reports of whenever she did stuff to me. Um, do you have any marks on your hands or anything? I think this is only This is it. Um, that's it. Yeah. So, there's like literally So, there was mention of you uh you getting punched in the chest. Have you checked to see if there's any marks there? I have not. So, what she did was she pulled me out of the bed after I got back in. I won't talk about the scene where she pulled me on the bed, slammed me on the ground, and was like she wasn't like punching punching me. She was just like her if she was up here, she was like going down on me like this. So I guess that was punching punching me. But she like pulled me out of bed, slammed me against the ground. So like from the bed to the ground, and then I was like, I'm not going to fight you. I like put my hands on the ground. And I think she had one hand on my wrist like this. Do you have any marks on your wrist from it? I don't think so. Where's that from? um that this wasn't here earlier, so I think it's from her, but I think that's all. Okay. So, she grabbed you and she pulled you off of the bed. Um she has knocked anything over. Yeah, we knocked she when I when she was pulling me off the bed. I think I actually hit the um shelving. So, like the books fell. I picked up a few books earlier and I was like maybe I shouldn't move anything. But um some stuff from our She drag you on the carpet. She didn't drag me. She just kind of took me from the bed and so there was I don't think there was any dragging. But so in the time uh while you guys were did it get physical at all when she was at the couch one more time when y'all were at the couch, did you get physical at all? No, I I think the only thing that I was I was like shaking her and being like, "What are you saying? What are you saying?" But once I realized that she was just asleep and she actually wasn't trying to communicate anything to me. I think she was just like, "Was anything said Did you say anything else at the couch? anything in reference to this isn't all I got or not at the couch. Um I which was a mistake on my part when we were back in there and um in our bedroom when she followed me back in there and she like ripped the covers off me a couple times. She um I was like trying to like encourage her to leave. So I just like used my whole body and like can please leave which I think instigated everything. Um but then she like started pushing me back which fair enough. Um, and I was really pushing her back and I kind of got like I kind of sat on the bed and she was like pushing me. Um, and I think once when I started saying that was because she was like pulling my hair and I was like I'm going to start fighting back now. Um, because I was like kind of like shoving her off. So what did you do to fight back? So I shoved her off with me. Um, once she started pulling my hair I was like okay well I can do that too. And I did it and I was like this is actually really wrong. So I stopped doing it. So I we both did. Did you at any moment Did you at any moment grab her neck or anything? I think I was pushing her bump here and like to kind of push off me cuz she actually did that to me in Atlanta and not to say that. Did you report that? Huh? Did you report that? No. So it's gotten physical between y'all before. Yeah. So she So who would who would you say is the person who gets visited first? So, their first physical encounter was So, who who would you like, so who would you say gets physical first when you yall get into arguments? Um, I will say three encounters that we've gotten physical was Atlanta, Christmas, and here. [snorts] Um, so you guys got physical on Christmas? Yeah, I think I was like she was trying to get her phone from me, so I was keeping her phone from her. So, that is my fault. So, I think that that me um She was what was she doing? She was I think she Oh, she was trying to call an Uber and in Atlanta she was just um she was choking me and pushing me on the ground. Um honestly that started because I didn't want to talk about my financials after a night out. Um how long have y'all been dating? Uh Elena, how long have y'all been dating? Um officially, so officially um New Year's Eve was our one year. Um unofficially has been a lot longer than that. How long have y'all lived together here? Since uh so I moved in in August and she moved in shortly after that. Okay. Does she live anywhere else or she primarily lives here? Oh, she lives here. Do you live anywhere else or do you primary live here? I live here. Okay. Um, so after the altercation in the bedroom, what happened? Um, after that I was like, well, if you recorded it, like, do I need to report this stuff? And that's when you all called 911. Yeah. So then we both separately reported our incidents. Okay. So I will say I will explain something to you based on the based on you guys living together. You know, this is a this is a considered a family violence relationship, right? So, just because you guys aren't dating um doesn't mean that it's not, you know what I mean? So, you guys have established residence here. You know, I mean, it helps that y'all are dating. But, um it is a family violence relationship, right? So, I find out now with the other officer what um I'm just probably going to meet with the other officer again. Yeah. We'll see. Uh it goes. I apologize for this happening. You know, it really it's it's a situation that it it really does suck. You know what I mean? because I'm I'm assuming you love her. I'm assuming she loves you too, right? You know, it sucks when um situations like this happens because of uh you know, it's just the fact that you know, it's never a good thing when you argue and fight with the person that you love. Yeah, just one of those things, you know. Have you thought about separating yourself from her? Have you thought about um We've discussed it a couple times. Um I know that I don't want to. And have you guys thought of ways to maybe figure this out without getting physical, without arguing? Yeah. Um because it seems to me like y'all are not compatible. Yeah, it's um we do fight quite a bit about stuff. Um so what's the main stuff y'all fight about? Um I don't know. a lot of just things that By the way, before I forget. Oh, um, could you write down your first and last name? Oh, my birthday's on Oh, really? Yeah. You're an Aquarius. Well, look at that. All right. If you can, just give me a couple minutes. Um, I'll speak with the officer outside. Um, are you guys both students here? Students? I I'm a graduate student. Graduate student. What about her? What she do? Uh, she's not. She did gra though. Oh, okay. So, how long are y'all staying here? Are y'all living in a are y'all going to live in Athens for a while or are y'all going to uh are y'all trying to move somewhere else or? Yeah. Um I am finishing up with my graduate degree in about five months. What's [snorts] your uh degree in cell bio? Cellular biology. It's tough. Yeah. All biology. [laughter] Yeah. Um what does she do? She is right now in recruiting. Um, she does like medical recruiting. Oh, so she's a medical Okay. She's involved in medicine as well. Mhm. All right. Give me just a give me just a couple minutes. Okay. Sure. I'll be right back. All right. Oh, is there another roommate? Huh? Huh? Yeah. Um um are you uh you live here too? Please just somebody [snorts] How are you friends with them? I'm the same. I am the sister to the girls and we're okay. So, um, have you seen them fight often? I hear them get verbal. I hear about right or wrong. They're both very, so it's hard. I'm going to go ahead and grab your name and date of birth. I'm going to put you as a witness because of what you just said to me. Oh, I need anything else? Yeah, date of birth, if you don't mind. Yeah, people always forget the date of birth. So, are you older or younger than the other sister? Um, about 14 months younger than her? Okay. And you still go to school at EJ? You like living here? It's It's um It's nice. Uh there's like It's really old. You can tell it's old when you live here. Really? Yeah. They just like do a lot. All right. You good? Mhm. All right. Um I'm going to get paperwork and bring down here. Okay. I'll be fine. I'll be back. I'll knock on the door. Um open it. Um I'm gonna go ahead and after we put her up, I'm going to go ahead and grab my phone. Um or unless you want. Okay. All right, that's done for. Let me take a picture. I will. All right. Is it? Yes. Okay. So, here's here's the issue that we have, right? So, your story doesn't seem okay. Her marks represent that you know you they represent that she was the one who is being you know being very like you know you were being very aggressive towards her. Okay. So um what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to place you under arrest for battery. Okay. So if you go just put your hands behind your back for me. So basically I explained this to her legally we have to arrest one or the other. Okay. You guys live together. It's family violence at that point. Um, just because you're being placed under arrest does not necessarily mean it's going to stick to your record. This is just you're being accused of it. Uh, so it will go to court and at that point it'll be determined if you're guilty or not guilty. Give me the arm if you don't mind. But basically kind of continuing to what he said, we have to take the evidence. We get both party statements. We have to take the evidence as to who the primary aggressor was. Um, unfortunately, you don't have any marks on you. And she's got scratches and bruises and carpet burn, so we have to take the evidence from what we can physically see. Okay. Um, other than that, if she didn't have any more, give me a second. I'm going to have to fix this one situation. So, I think this is the only like I explained to her, it's nothing to really freak out about right now. You're just being accused. So, we just have to do our job and it's case law that we have to or we lose our jobs. Yeah. No, that's 54 central 1095 one female. Do I need to be tricked or anything? Do you do you have a phone or anything that you need? Um, there's a phone I think it's actually on the shoe face right there. Okay. So, you can get phone calls at the jail. Um, you basically don't know any numbers. You can get them out of your phone. Oh, if you take your phone with you, you can do all that once we get there. Okay. Can I actually inform my sister what's happening? Is she inside? Yeah, she was the one. Yeah, she's uh she's the other witness. She lives here. So, I explained it to the people inside what was going on. So, I can talk to her again. Um Oh, yeah. That's fine. Should I grab my You want to grab it? Yeah, I'll grab it. Uh should I get my ID or anything? Uh no, you're um Where is it at? Um I think Leo could tell you where it is. Do you have anything in your pockets or anything like that? Um I just want I just want to let you know I'm going to search you real quick. Um, I just want to let you know that, um, if you do cross the uh, if you do cross the jail line with anything illegal, it becomes a felony. You know what I mean? Um, all right. I'll carry your phone. I'll take your car. You want me to service? Yeah, if you don't mind. Um, do I need to be picked up tonight or anything? Um, so with it being family volunteer schedule together, you'll have to see a judge. Um, the judge has come home tonight. Well, 6, more or less. So, it's almost 4. The judge comes in at 6:37. You at least stay long enough to talk to him. Is your ID? Yes, that's fine. The process to get booked in is going to take about an hour to two hours. So, by the time they book you in time to see a judge and then he'll basically give you that wallet and then once the court date you can issue stuff or anything like they're going to change you. They're good. Yeah, they're going to take all if you want to face me. I got to check your Yes. area. All right. So, yeah. Well, let's go ahead and walk up there and get you out of the cold and then like I said, they're going to take everything from you and change you in your clothes and then Okay. I'll just go with it when I get there. Yeah. Yeah. Just head up there. All right. So, you have my phone number. No. What is it again? I mean, I think I can use my phone. Yeah, she can use her she can use her phone. Um if you don't mind giving her um getting her phone number for me if you don't mind the victims. All right, I'll get it. Yeah, go ahead. That's fine. Yeah, as long as you don't slip. All right. You ready? Yeah. All right. Come on. We're coming up. I promise. Okay. Here. Step upstairs or I'm upstairs. Um it's going to be okay. Um, you know, stuff like this happens all the time. Like I said, it's not uh it's not the end of the world. How co are you right now? Um, so I actually think I was more positive before and so I tested positive on like Wednesday with at home test. Wednesday, last week. Yeah. So I had symptoms way before that. So I'm like I think I was at the tail end of it cuz Leah, my girlfriend, actually had the symptoms that I also had. Okay. this week. All right. So, I don't have to take a bath in hand sanitizer. Uh, you know, maybe sanitize your hands. You'll be okay. Okay. Yeah. Um, you want me to transport her? If you don't mind, cuz I was going to leave it for That's fine. Yeah. Uh, can you uh can you do that ABR for me real quick? Send that up cuz I can't print from my computer. So, I can't either. Oh, okay. That's fine. I can just do it up there. I can I can send it if you need me to. I just can't print it. Yeah, just send it and I'll grab it from the jail. So, we're going to go over here to this car over here. Car 200. Yep. So, what happens when we talk to the guards and stuff? So, typically what happens is um if I can get this janky car open here, let me check this real quick. Sure. I've got your phone and your wallet and your ID is in your wallet. So, if you want to hop in there, I'll explain through the partitioner. Sure. All right. Give me just a second. Okay. Hey, I wanted to ask you real quick. You good with this? You're good with this, right? Oh, yeah. Like, I'm I'm good with it. I mean it just wasn't nothing was matching up what she was saying. No. And when she was telling me her story, she was very hesitant like I ask um and she had to like think about Oh yeah. She switched it up on me too. So basically um in your report you can just say like she was super calm and collective um and her story was very all over the place. Her timeline wasn't matching up. She was hesitant to say what she was going to say. And absolutely obviously this girl's super hysterical. She's got marks on her. Yeah, that's the one thing that threw me off was that all those all those marks represented the exact opposite of what she was saying. The victim asked me if we could take her to jail instead. Like this relationship's not okay. Take her to where? She was like, "Can you just take me to jail instead? I don't want her to get in trouble." Yikes. Okay. So, this is probably there's there's literally not a charge for you. And she was like, "Can you just make something up for me that way she doesn't have to go to jail?" Like, it's a very toxic. So, you think she needs bond conditions? for Yes. With contact, but no provoke like nothing aggressive. Yeah. No violent contact. Yeah. So, they can still be around each other. Just no violent whatever. She wants her to come back. So, yeah. And I feel like I mean, I was talking to her and it seems like their relationship is good except for when they're arguing. So, we'll see. All right. Thank you, Tori. Got it. Hello. Hello. The suspect was booked for battery. What do you think about this incident? Comment below.