Warsaw Teen Held Following Battery Incident In March
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
A 19-year-old was arrested Friday after reportedly beating up an 18-year-old, sending him to the hospital in March.
Cole Alexander Wooldridge, 19, of 3699 N. CR 175E, #4, Warsaw, was booked into the Kosciusko County Jail at 2:06 p.m. Friday for battery with bodily injury, a Class A misdemeanor. His preliminary bond was set at $600.
Shortly after 7 p.m. March 3, a woman called Kosciusko County Central Dispatch in reference to her son getting in a fight at Boggs Industrial Park basketball courts and said he was going to Kosciusko Community Hospital.
A Warsaw Police Department officer went to KCH and met with the victim. His face was bloody where his lips had been cut from a punch, and he had blood on his clothing.
The victim told the officer he was hit several times by Wooldridge.
He said he was invited to play basketball at Boggs but he did not know Wooldridge would be there. Wooldridge approached the victim, asked him what he was doing there, told him not to talk about him, got in his face and punched him before the victim could respond. The victim said he was hit four times in the lip, eye and temple.
The victim said he swung back at Wooldridge but missed. He said others at the court circled around them during the confrontation, some recording the fight with their cellphones. The victim said he was able to get away and left the area in his vehicle. He then called his mother, who told him to go to KCH and that she was going to call police.
The victim told the officer he wanted to press charges against Wooldridge.
The victim said he had not talked or said anything to Wooldridge since last summer. He said Wooldridge may have an issue with him over previous allegations involving himself and a juvenile female, but he didn’t know the relationship between the female and Wooldridge.
At the hospital, the victim’s mother said she was concerned about future altercations because her son has a history with Wooldridge harassing them at their home, driving by their home, ringing the door bell and running, and vandalizing her son’s vehicle in the driveway.
The victim received a text message from an unfamiliar number that said, “why you gotta run to daddy.” The officer took a photograph of the message, as it was believed to be from Wooldridge.
The mother explained that her son’s dad sent a message to Wooldridge on Facebook. The officer told her that she and the victim’s father should stay out of it.
Around 9:20 p.m. March 3, the mother called dispatch again with concerns about her son receiving threatening messages from the same unfamiliar number. She said the message said for the victim to call the number, which he ignored, but then it said to call “or else.” The officer called the number and there was no answer and no voicemail option.
Wooldridge’s father told an officer on March 4 that his son told him the victim started the fight and he went to the basketball court to fight his son. He said his son was punched and his lip was busted open, but he didn’t get treatment for it. The father also said the victim threatened Wooldridge a few months before at a party and said he was going to go home and get his dad’s gun, but the incident was never reported.
The officer spoke with another man who was at the fight and said Wooldridge started swinging at the victim as soon as he arrived. Asked why there was history between the victim and Wooldridge, the witness said Wooldridge was related to the juvenile female involved in previous allegations against the victim.
