ST. PAUL
A St. Paul man locked his girlfriend in a dog kennel and smashed her teeth with a wine bottle because he was angry that she wanted to end their relationship, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Luke Brandon Scott, 29, "didn't want to hear that," Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Janice Barker said.
Beginning the evening of Sept. 26 and continuing into early Sept. 27, 2010, Scott beat, dragged, insulted and imprisoned Caitlin Hodges, 21, Barker said.
At one point, he shoved her in his dog kennel.
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"That's where the b---s go," Barker quoted Scott as saying. Hodges clung to the small dog, thinking Scott wouldn't hurt it, but Scott grabbed the animal and threw it against the refrigerator, Barker said. Hodges lost a tooth, had bruises on her head and needed stitches on her upper lip.
The description of the incident took place as Scott's trial opened Tuesday. He has been charged with first- and second-degree assault, terroristic threats and false imprisonment.
Scott's attorney, Leif Carlson, said in his opening statement that things happened differently than Hodges described.
The two had been drinking heavily and hanging out with other friends that night at Scott's home in the 1200 block of East Reaney Avenue, he said.
They got into an argument -- both stumbling around and punching each other, he said. The scene was "rather unseemly."
But Scott did not assault or imprison Hodges, Carlson said.
Instead, Hodges "drank so much for so
long that she finally fell down and hurt herself," Carlson said. "That's how she injured her face and her mouth, and that's how her tooth was knocked out."
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Carlson said Scott did, in fact, try to prevent Hodges from leaving, but only so that she would not drive drunk.
He urged jurors to listen carefully to the testimony of the people who were at the house that night in addition to that of the police and medical personnel the state would present.
Hodges eventually left the house and walked to the SuperAmerica at Johnson Parkway and East Seventh Street, a few blocks away. A clerk called 911, saying a woman there was "bleeding real bad."
Marc Linsenman, a St. Paul Fire Department paramedic who responded to the call, said Hodges looked like the victim of a fight.
"She looked swollen, crying. She looked like she was beaten up," he said.
A police officer who went to Scott's house said he noticed a large number of knives and martial arts tools, including Samurai swords, "scattered throughout the entire basement area."
Scott remarked that he was "a pirate," officer Christopher Hoyt said.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
