It started when her husband came home from work one Wednesday night to find dinner wasn’t ready. A day later, a forensic nurse would reveal the disturbing truth about her punishment — she had been beaten, strangled and left with injuries on nearly every part of her body.
Steve Harris, 55, faces charges of aggravated domestic assault, disorderly conduct and preventing the use of a telephone in an emergency after the hanger-fueled beating. Maricopa Police Department arrested him Dec. 4.
Harris had called the authorities to his Rancho Mirage home on San Sisto Avenue at 8:30 p.m. that night. He admitted to officers that he was upset his wife had not made dinner on time, and that he pried her cell phone out of her hands when she tried to call the police.
The wife’s testimony would reveal a much more sinister side to the story. She described a rageful attack wherein she was punched, pummeled in the head and strangled, among other brutalities.
When she tried to call for help, she said, Harris wrestled her only lifeline away from her, badly injuring her arm and ripping off her fingernail. Only then was she able to escape to safety inside a neighbor’s house.
A forensic nurse Dec. 5 conducted a criminal medical examination on the woman. The authorities in a Dec. 4 police document said the examination was “being conducted for strangulation.”
The exam reveals that the battered woman had signs of hypervascularization in her eyes, purplish contusions on her neck and arms, scratches on her arms and hands, a torn fingernail and other injuries to her arms and chest.
Police on Thursday lodged new aggravated assault charges against Harris related to the vicious beating. If convicted, he faces more than five years in prison.
Resources for people experiencing domestic violence in Maricopa include:
- National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-SAFE (7233)
- Arizona Coalition to End Sexual & Domestic Violence: 602-279-2980
- Hope Women’s Center: 520-568-0532
- Against Abuse, Inc.: 520-836-0858
