December 31, 2005
Police arrests boyfriend of woman who swallowed cell phone
The boyfriend of the Missouri woman who swallowed a cell phone, was arrested yesterday on charges of first degree assault, informs Free New Mexican.
Marlon Brandon Gill, 23, was charged Tuesday with first-degree assault - a felony - in a case initially considered an oddity when it was reported that Melinda Abell had swallowed the cell phone herself during an argument with her boyfriend.
Abell told detectives that Gill, her ex-boyfriend, forced her from her house and made her go with him in his vehicle. While on the road, Gill began screaming at her and demanded her cell phone, she said, adding that Gill then grabbed her by the mouth and shoved the cell phone into her mouth until it became lodged in her throat.
Blue Springs police were called to the scene and an ambulance took Abell to a Kansas City hospital, where she had surgery to remove the phone.
Police Sgt. Allen Kintz said investigators weren't able to talk to Abell until that evening because of the surgery, but didn't set out to trivialize what happened to her. "Our initial press release was that she had swallowed a cell phone," Kintz said in an interview Tuesday. "Subsequent investigation found that she didn't swallow the cell phone voluntarily. That was what we were told initially."
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