31-year-old Mark McLaughlin was charged with domestic assault, interference with an emergency call, and false imprisonment after getting upset with his girlfriend/ex-wife, tossing her over a chair into another room, and then holding her captive during a welfare check.
On March 12th, Deputy Donnell was called to 300 Bryant Street by Keelan Lowery of the Mental Health Cooperative. Mr. Lowery was already at the address for a welfare check and had witnessed the altercation. The front door was open and the room was disheveled when Deputy Donnell announced his presence. No one responded and the deputy could hear crying from a room toward the back of the house. When Deputy Donnell knocked on the bedroom door, a male inside the room claimed to have issues opening the door. After forcing the room door open, Deputy Donnell found Mark McLaughlin standing over ex-wife and current girlfriend Samantha Dowdy, who was on the floor.
Samantha told the deputy that Mark had become enraged over a message she received and started flinging things about. She attempted to make an emergency call, secure herself in another room to escape, and even defended herself with pepper spray. Mark threw her over a chair, trapped her in the room, isolated her from her phone, and tried to silence her when officers arrived.
Mark McLaughlin was arrested and charged with domestic assault, interference with an emergency call and false imprisonment. He is jailed in lieu of a $4,500 bond.
[…] domestic incident is not the first between the couple. In late March, WCSO Deputy Donnell was dispatched to the same address, this time in response from a Mental Health Cooperative worker. Per the March affidavit, McLaughlin […]
He has been arrested many more times for the exact same thing since this article. the local police will not help her and they release him from jail in less the 5 days every time. He has violated his probation multiple times and no one is helping. I’ve never seen anything like this before. He manipulates and bullies this poor girl and her children. Office Petty told me she was a lost cause and they weren’t going to do anything because she keeps letting him back in. She doesn’t have a choice when he kicks the door in steals her phone, car, and all her money. This guy is a psychopath and refuses to take his antipsychotic medication and becomes delusion and violent. He should be in a state hospital somewhere not free to continue to victimize a single mother of 2 little girls.
He’s currently at the residence right now coercing her to drop the current order of protection that’s in place he’s violating.