'Tell [the] judge you want it dropped!'
A Butler County Prison inmate is accused of repeatedly calling his girlfriend in hopes she would help him get out of his latest trouble with the law.
Instead, Andrew J. Hoy, 23, of Butler finds himself in deeper trouble.
Butler County detectives Wednesday charged Hoy with a felony count of intimidation of a witness stemming from nine jailhouse phone calls between Jan. 22 and 24.
Hoy began his latest stint behind bars on Jan. 17, when he was arrested for allegedly choking his girlfriend to near unconsciousness during a domestic dispute at their apartment on West Jefferson Street.
The victim told police that Hoy grabbed her by the throat, threw her on the bed and strangled her. Officers said the woman suffered injuries to her neck and face during the altercation.
Hoy was arraigned on felony charges of aggravated assault and strangulation and a misdemeanor charge of simple assault, and placed in the county prison on $75,000 bail.
Five days later, investigators said, he made his first jailhouse call to the victim. More would follow.
In the calls, which are recorded by the jail in a policy that is known to inmates, Hoy is heard telling his girlfriend what to say at his upcoming preliminary hearing “to get the charges thrown out,” documents said.
A detective who reviewed the recorded calls, said the couple “discussed the severity of the most recent argument, how they were both drinking and how they wished the police were not involved.”
To learn more about this case, read Friday’s Butler Eagle.
