Lawyer indicted after he's accused of trying to strangle magistrate girlfriend
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A Houston-area attorney was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday after being accused of trying to strangle his girlfriend—a county magistrate—last summer.
Oliver Jason Brown, 40, who practices criminal, family and civil law, was charged in August 2019 with assault of a family member and impeding breathing after he allegedly pushed the woman into a bathroom, punched her in the face, covered her mouth and nose with his hand and then put pressure around her neck, the Houston Chronicle reports.
The woman escaped to her car and had visible injuries on her face and neck when police arrived, according to the Houston Chronicle, which does not typically name victims of assault. Brown refused to cooperate or leave the house, telling authorities that he was a lawyer and that they would “need a to-be (warrant) to get me,” according to court documents cited by the newspaper.
Brown posted a $5,000 bond. Chukwudi Egbuonu, his defense attorney, told the Houston Chronicle that “we just look forward to proving his innocence in court.”
Judge Abigail Anastasio of the 184th Criminal Court in Houston was assigned the case but recused herself. The Houston Chronicle reports that, according to court documents, she couldn’t be on the case as a matter of “propriety.”
