DARLINGTON — A 33-year-old Browntown woman will have a motion hearing on attempted first-degree intentional homicide and three other felony charges in Lafayette County Circuit Court Wednesday morning.
One hour before that hearing, the woman’s alleged victim will have a status conference and a pretrial conference on felony charges he faces for separate incidents.
Brandy Marie Smithey faces the attempted homicide charge as well as battery — causing bodily harm and two counts of felony bail jumping for injuries to Theodore S. Bauer III, 37, Gratiot, Feb. 4.
Smithey also faces an additional felony bail jumping charge. After the motion hearing Wednesday at 10 a.m., a status conference on all the charges is scheduled for Oct. 28 at 9 a.m.
Smithey’s case is being heard by Green County Circuit Judge James Beer after Smithey filed for substitution of judge in February.
According to the criminal complaint, Bauer claimed to have told Smithey to “get her things and to get out” several times during the argument, which escalated when Smithey allegedly commanded her pet pit bull to attack Bauer.
According to the criminal complaint, Smithey then attacked Bauer herself with an ax and aluminum baseball bat, causing serious injuries. A nurse at Mercy Medical Center in Dubuque described Bauer’s wounds as several open wounds and bite wounds on his back and arms.
Bauer did not seek treatment for his injuries until he went to Mercy Feb. 9, five days later. A Mercy nurse contacted Lafayette County authorities.
Bauer also told a Lafayette County Sheriff’s detective that his upper two front teeth were broken during the incident when Smithey struck Bauer in the face with a baseball bat, according to the criminal complaint.
Bauer said he remembered nothing after he was hit by the ax. He was later awakened in his bed by his mother, daughter and ex-wife, according to the criminal complaint.
Bauer later said Smithey took his cellphone and the keys to all of his vehicles, and disabled or hid several land-line telephones, leaving him with no way to contact anyone or transport himself after the incident.
Smithey was arrested under the state domestic abuse law Feb. 9, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Smithey told authorities that Bauer instigated the attack and that her dog attacked Bauer several times to protect her. Smithey claimed Bauer pushed her against a desk, head-butted her, held her down on a mattress and then tried to break down a bathroom door with an ax after she locked herself and the dog in the bathroom to get away from him.
Smithey claimed Bauer attempted to hit her dog with the baseball bat when they exited the bathroom, and she said she blocked the hit with her arm, grabbed the bat and threw it before leaving the residence.
Smithey said she found Bauer’s cellphone in his pocket after she left the house, but she was not sure when she had taken the phone. Smithey claimed Bauer had broken her cellphone several days before the incident. Smithey also denied taking Bayer’s vehicle keys.
Smithey told a detective she could not remember if she struck Bauer with the ax, and she may have struck Bauer in the face with the bat when she threw it, but she didn’t remember for sure.
Smithey also has three charges and two citations pending in Columbia County from August 2013 — fifth- or sixth-offense drunk driving, operating with prohibited alcohol concentration for the fourth time in five years, operating after revocation, speeding 20–24 mph over the limit in a 55-mph zone, and open intoxicants in a motor vehicle — driver.
A plea/sentencing hearing on the drunk driving charges is scheduled for Oct. 9.
The battery, drunk driving and felony bail jumping charges each have a maximum penalty of six years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Meanwhile, Bauer’s status conference Wednesday at 9 a.m. will be for felony charges he faces for three separate incidents, including a charge of second-degree recklessly endangering safety.
On March 3, 2014, a caller reported to Lafayette County 911 that her ex-husband had entered her home in South Wayne and threatening her by holding a handgun to her head. Bauer then left the South Wayne house and was arrested in the driveway of his house.
Black Hawk School in South Wayne was locked down briefly before Bauer was arrested.
The trial on that charge is scheduled for Oct. 29, with the pretrial conference Wednesday at 9 a.m.
Bauer was also arrested for felony bail jumping and cited for first-offense drunk driving and failure to keep a vehicle under control July 22, 2014, according to court records, after a report of a vehicle in the ditch on Andrews Road in the Town of Wayne. Bauer pleaded not guilty to that charge and those citations Aug. 22. That status conference is also set for Wednesday at 9 a.m.
Bauer was then arrested for felony bail jumping and cited for reckless driving — endangering safety and failure to notify police of an accident Nov. 16. Bauer pleaded not guilty to the bail jumping charge Jan. 30, and the other two citations were dismissed March 3, according to court records. That status conference also will be held Wednesday.
