Probable cause is found to charge man who beat up drinking partner

Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho yesterday found probable cause to charge Donny Swei with two offenses for allegedly beating up another man with a baton during a drinking session.

During the preliminary hearing, Camacho determined that there was probable cause to charge Swei, an ex-convict, with assault with a dangerous weapon and disturbing the peace.

Camacho directed the 42-year-old Swei to respond to the charges.

The judge, however, found no probable cause to charge Swei with aggravated assault and battery. He dismissed the charge without prejudice, which means the government can re-file the charge in the future.

At the hearing, assistant attorney general Chester Hinds called to the witness stand police detective Catherine B. Pangelinan, who basically narrated to the court the circumstances of the fight and their investigation that led to the arrest of Swei.

Assistant public defender Tillman Clark served as counsel for Swei.

Police arrested Swei on July 15 after he was identified in a surveillance camera’s footage that caught the attack at an apartment in Afetnas last July 8.

The victim, Scott Patrick Owen, suffered lacerations on the head and face and had to be brought to the Commonwealth Health Center for stitches, police said.

Police detective Pangelinan stated in her report that two police officers responded on July 8 at 7:52pm to a report of an injured person at Owen’s apartment along Afetnas Road.

Owen told the officers that he had been drinking vodka with the Palauan man and that the suspect attacked him after he told Swei several times to leave because he needed to rest.

Owen added that he doesn’t know the suspect’s name.

Pangelinan said Owen called her the following day and gave her a flash drive containing the footage of the attack. She reviewed the footage, which was taken from the Advantage Store and faces the patio of Owen’s house.

Pangelinan said the footage showed Swei throwing Owen to the floor, repeatedly punching him, and then hitting him several times with an extendable baton.

Pangelinan said Swei was taken to the Commonwealth Bureau of Investigation for an interview, during which Owen identified him as his attacker.

The detective said Swei admitted to slapping and punching Owen in the face.