Law enforcement officials continue to investigate an incident over the weekend that left a Mansfield woman hospitalized.
Union County Sheriff Jamie Patton said that at 1:58 p.m. Friday, deputies were called to a field near the intersection of routes 38 and 161, near Chuckery, on a report of an assaulted woman. When deputies and units from the Union Township and Pleasant Valley fire departments arrived they found an off duty doctor and another individual tending to a 39-year-old woman.
The woman was taken to Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus for “advanced care,” Patton said, noting that the woman could not feel her lower extremities.
When investigators were able to speak with the woman they learned that she and several other individuals, all from the Mansfield area, had been together, drinking. Patton said the woman did not say why the group was in the area.
“She said they were out drinking and she was not wanting to do it any longer and it turned into an argument,” Patton said.
He said the woman and a man described as “an intimate acquaintance” were in the back seat of a Chevy Suburban when the argument turned into more. The woman told investigators the man was 46 or 47 years old.
“The driver was in the process of slowing down when the man in the back seat opened the door and before the vehicle could stop, pushed the female out the door,” Patton said. “The car kept going and the woman rolled into the field.”
Eventually drivers in the area saw the woman, called for emergency help and started rendering aid.
“The victim couldn’t tell how long she was there,” Patton said.
The sheriff acknowledged the circumstances around the case are “kind of strange.”
“We are still investigating so there is no charges out of it at this point,” Patton said, though he noted there could be charges eventually.
Police said a 47-year-old man was hospitalized a day later in another case “just as strange” but unrelated.
Patton said that at 9:34 p.m. Saturday, deputies were called to Route 245 near Buck Run Road for a person found bleeding, lying in the roadway. Deputies and medics from the Allen Township Fire Department arrived and spoke with the man.
“The victim said he hit a deer with his truck but there was no truck at the scene and no deer,” Patton said.
He said, “it appears the individual was extremely intoxicated.”
Patton said the man “does not remember anything including how he got to the area but told investigators he had a little too much St. Patty’s Day fun.”
The man did say that he had not been in any type of assault.
“It appears he was at a party and was drinking and just walked away, and fell on his own and hit his head,” Patton said.
The man was transported to Memorial Hospital where family members picked him up.
“At least he didn’t get behind the wheel and drive because that would have been bad,” Patton said.