Saugus selectman accused of assault

SAUGUS – Police are charging Saugus selectman Stephen Horlick with domestic assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with an incident involving a woman at his house.Lynn District Court documents state the charges stem from an altercation that occurred at Horlick’s home Oct. 5. Horlick is to be arraigned Oct. 22.A resident on Bacon Drive called police at around 8:30 p.m. Oct. 5 after an unknown woman came to his door and said she was assaulted and asked him to call police, the documents state.Officers described the woman as being “highly animated and smelling of alcohol,” according to the report. The woman told police she and Horlick had an argument over a cell phone battery.Horlick told police that the woman had recently changed her depression medication and is not supposed to consume alcohol, the report states. Horlick said that she drank wine that night, and after the two got into an argument, the report states Horlick left the home to avoid further confrontation.The report states police left the home and there was no evidence of an assault.At around 3:30 the next morning, however, police received a call from Melrose-Wakefield Hospital reporting that a woman was there with “visible injuries she claims to have sustained from a past assault.”Saugus Police Sgt. Paul Vansteensburg stated in the report that the woman had red marks to her forehead above her left eye, and marks to her “upper arms, her left wrist, both her thighs, her left knee and a cut to her big toe.”The woman told police that she got the injuries from the earlier incident with Horlick, but the marks were not visible the previous evening, the report states.The woman told police she didn’t tell police about the injuries or the assault earlier because “she did not want to get Horlick in trouble because he is a selectman and she thought he would get mad at her.”When Horlick returned at around 8 p.m., the woman stated she confronted him and asked him to repair her phone so she could leave, said the report. The two then got into a physical struggle and the woman stated in the report that Horlick threw her phone at her, hitting her in the forehead.The woman also told police she slapped Horlick during the struggle, but said it was in defense. The report states the phone was missing its battery but had no physical damage.The woman then told police she tried leaving the house but Horlick “held her by the arms, keeping her from leaving because he did not want anyone to know they were fighting.”The report states Horlick gave a similar account of the initial argument the next day, but he stated he did not know why the phone wasn’t working, and when he got back home the woman shoved her phone in his face and accused him of breaking it, said the report.Horlick stated the woman slapped him and “defending himself, he pushed her away and that he may have inadvertently pushed the phone in her hands to her forehead,” according to the report.Horlick told police the woman was the primary aggressor and said he believed her recently changed medicine was to blame, said the report.The woman was able to free herself and ran barefoot to a neighbor’s house, which is how the woman said she cut her toe, according to the report.The woman told police she was “not up front with the officers who responded” because she has nowhere else to go, said the report.When police spoke to Horlick the next day, he told officers the woman stayed in the bedroom for several hours, and when she emerged, he saw marks on the woman’s head and forehead, said the report.Horlick said he was confused because she did not have marks when he last saw her. Horlick explained once again in the report that the woman attacked him several times the night before and shoved her phone in his face, and he was only trying to get away, the report states. Horlick also emailed photos to police he took after the incident showing “redness to the right side of his head.”Vansteensburg wrote in the r