Staff Report

WARSAW — A Michigan couple is facing domestic battery charges after they allegedly had a physical altercation at a Kosciusko County hotel.

Eric Brown

Monica Collier

Eric Dushawn Brown, 45, 4232 Shetland Drive, Hudsonville, Mich., is facing charges of domestic battery with moderate bodily injury, a level 6 felony; and domestic battery, a class A misdemeanor.

Monica Lynn Collier, 36, 4232 Shetland Drive, Hudsonville, Mich., is facing charges of domestic battery with moderate bodily injury, a level 6 felony; and domestic battery, a class A misdemeanor.

According to a probable cause affidavit, on Sunday, Feb. 7, a Warsaw police officer responded to a domestic dispute at Best Western. He was assisted by two other Warsaw officers and a Winona Lake officer.

The officers went to a hotel room and could hear a couple fighting as they approached. They heard a woman say, “You punched me.”

Officers knocked on the door, and Brown answered. He said he and his girlfriend Collier had been drinking.

He said she became angry and hit him on the face 20 times. Brown had a small cut above his eyebrow and blood on his nose.

Brown agreed to take a portable breath test, which registered his BAC at .168.

Officers spoke with Collier, who had a forehead abrasion and a cut on her hand.

She said Brown had been drinking throughout the night and had at least 10-12 beers. She said she asked Brown to get off the phone.

She said he threw the phone at her, hitting her forehead and hurting her. He picked up his phone and hit her forehead with it again.

He didn’t hurt her after that, she said. She scratched his face and broke his necklace after he had hit her the second time.

Officers asked why she did that if Brown had stopped hitting her.

Collier changed her story and said she and Brown wrestled during which time he hit her on the face several times and she hit him with her fist several times.

Collier agreed to a portable breath test, which registered her BAC at .201.

Both were booked at the Kosciusko County Jail on Feb. 7 on $6,000 surety and cash bonds.