Man faces multiple felonies for choking, hitting children
A 39-year-old Brown County has been charged with seven felonies after police watched videos of him choking and cursing at two teenage children in 2017.
On Feb. 18, Jonathan Browning was charged with two counts of strangulation, two counts of intimidation and three counts of domestic battery, all Level 6 felonies.
Det. Brian Shrader with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department began an investigation Feb. 11 when he watched 12 videos that were taken on Dec. 28, 2017. The mother of the children in the videos had brought the videos to police, according to the probable cause affidavit.
One of the victims told Shrader that Browning drank a 24-pack of beer on Dec. 28, 2017. She said the abuse had happened several times.
In one of the videos, Shrader reported hearing Browning yell at a teen as she is crying. He wrote that Browning was intoxicated, slurring his words and not able to put together complete sentences.
In a second video, Shrader reported seeing Browning choking one of the children. The victim stands up and is coughing, trying to catch her breath. Shrader also reports that the victim’s shirt was torn.
A third video showed Browning calling one of the teens derogatory names and hitting her as she tries to prevent him from entering the room she was in. He also threatens her life. A second victim then steps in to prevent Browning from entering the room, and Browning is seen grabbing that person by the throat, then throwing him across the room, the affidavit states.
Other videos show more of the same behaviors, the police report said.
A witness to the incident recorded the videos on a cellphone. One of the victims told police that she asked the witness to delete the videos in 2017 for many reasons, including safety. When the witness began using a new phone, the videos uploaded from a cloud account to her new phone.
Report of reckless driver results in OWI arrest
A report of a reckless driver on Feb. 17 resulted in the arrest of a Edinburgh man for driving while intoxicated.
Paul Gobel, 33, was charged on Feb. 18 with operating a vehicle while intoxicated — endangering a person, a Level 6 felony; operating a vehicle with a Schedule I or II controlled substance, or its metabolite, in the body, a Level 6 felony; and driving while suspended, a Class A misdemeanor.
Cpt. Mike Moore with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department stopped Gobel on Hoover Road after dispatch had received a complaint of a vehicle driving all over the road and into oncoming traffic.
Moore found a vehicle matching the description as it was driving off a driveway into a grassy area near a creek in the 400 block of Hoover Road. Moore reported that Gobel was slurring his words and was having trouble following directions, and had glassy eyes and pinpoint pupils, according to the affidavit.
Gobel pulled himself from the vehicle and had to lean on it for balance during the stop. Moore found that Gobel’s driver’s license was also suspended, the report said.
Moore took to Gobel to Columbus Regional Hospital for a blood draw and to medically clear him for jail. Gobel kept passing out on the drive and then could not stay awake while at the hospital, the report said.
He had three prescriptions that were issued to him. Moore counted the pills for those two prescriptions and discovered that each bottle was missing more than what the prescription allowed, the report said. Gobel told Moore the missing medicine was locked in a safe at a relative’s home.
