LAVERKIN — A Diamond Valley man was arrested for burglary, theft and assault in LaVerkin Thursday after allegedly taking matters into his own hands and assaulting a woman following an alleged dispute over a bounced $100 check.

Officers responded to a report of an assault in which a woman said she had been thrown to the ground by a man, identified as David John Carter, who had just entered her garage and stolen an automobile part, according to a probable cause statement written by LaVerkin City Police Officer Amber Crouse in support of the arrest.

After taking the automobile part out of the garage, the woman said, Carter put the part on the front floorboard of his truck, according to the statement. When the woman reached into the truck to grab the part, Carter allegedly grabbed her and threw her to the ground.

Carter then allegedly jumped in his truck and took off while the woman was still on the ground, the statement said.

A witness told police that he saw a man carrying something out of the garage and went outside and found a white truck in the yard, Crouse said in the statement. The truck then drove off, and the witness found the woman on the ground, bleeding from her head and elbow.

When police interviewed Carter, he told officers the woman’s husband bounced a check to him, so he went to the residence to collect on it, according to the statement.

Carter said he saw the part he had worked on sitting at the residence and put it inside his truck. He said the woman tried getting into his truck, so he got in his truck and left, the statement said. Carter said he saw the woman sitting on the ground but said he didn’t touch her.

Carter told police the automobile part was sitting outside of the garage when he took it and that he didn’t go into the garage, according to the probable cause statement.

“He stated he told the victim he was going to take $100.00 worth of stuff if she didn’t have the money for the bounced check,” Crouse wrote in the statement. “He stated he had his hand on a vacuum but didn’t take the vacuum.”

Because the two stories didn’t match up, Crouse went to the house where the incident allegedly occurred to get more information.

The woman and her husband both said the part was inside the garage on a workbench, the statement said, and told police Carter even had to move a mop bucket to get to it.

“They showed me the piece of material on the workbench where the part had been,” Crouse wrote in the statement. “There was a glittery gold substance on the material. They stated if I looked at the part it would have the same substance on it. I looked at the part and it did have the same substance on it. It also had small pieces of the material on it.”

Crouse then looked at the area where Carter said he got the part, the statement said, and the area was all dirt. Crouse examined the part, but there was no dirt on it.

After conducting interviews and looking at all the evidence, Crouse said she believed Carter did enter the garage to take the part and that an assault did take place, according to the statement.

Carter was arrested and booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility.

He was charged with a second-degree felony for burglary of a dwelling and two class B misdemeanors for theft and assault.

He was released from custody on a $6,750 cash bond and is scheduled to make his initial court appearance on Thursday.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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