Man charged for holding woman against her will

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December 27, 2012

Man charged for holding woman against her will

Incident in Claysburg Towers results in confinement, battery, drug charges

By GARY POPP gary.popp@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Thu Dec 27, 2012, 06:10 AM EST

JEFFERSONVILLE — A man was arrested at his Claysburg Two Towers home Saturday after police say he kept a woman in his apartment against her will for several hours.

Jeffersonville police responded to the apartment complex at 1306 Wall Street about 3:30 a.m. to find a woman crying hysterically outside of the building. The woman told officers she called 911 after Michael Anthony Ellery, 50, made violent threats to keep her in his home for more than four hours.

She said that while she was visiting Ellery, he asked her to smoke crack cocaine with him, police reported. When she refused and told Ellery she was going to leave, he became very angry and would not let her leave, according to her statements to police.

“[Ellery] also told [the woman] that if she tried to leave, he was going to ‘cut her ... with a hatchet,’ and then began to tell her that he had killed people before,” according to the police report.

The woman told police that Ellery told her that if she called police, he would find her family and kill them. The woman also told officers that Ellery struck her in the face with an open hand.

While being held in the apartment, the woman told police she kept watching Ellery, hoping to get the opportunity to call 911 or run out of the apartment. According to the police report, at one point during her confinement, the woman attempted to run from the home as Ellery was getting something from a refrigerator.

“She advised [Ellery] grabbed the hatchet and struck her in the back of her right arm, on the triceps,” according to the police report.

The blade did not break the woman’s skin, but police reported she had a very dark bruise on the back of her arm consistent with the width of the hatchet’s blade.

The woman was later able to escape from the home and call police.

After speaking with the woman, police responded to Ellery’s apartment. As he was being taken into custody, police reported, officers found a small, plastic bag containing a white, powdery substance in plain view sitting on top of an air conditioning unit. The substance later tested positive as cocaine.

Ellery was preliminarily charged by police with class B felony criminal confinement, intimidation, a class C felony, possession of cocaine, class not listed, and battery, a class A misdemeanor.

He appeared for an advisement of rights hearing in Clark County Circuit Court No. 1 on Wednesday.

During the hearing, presiding judge Daniel Moore placed Ellery under a $25,000 court-cash bond. An initial hearing was scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday.