ALPENA — On Thursday, 51-year-old defendant Anthony Stokes, of Alpena County, had his preliminary examination for an alleged act of domestic violence charge.

The victim testified that on Feb. 26, the day of the alleged assault, she had gone to work as usual. She said that she and Stokes had been arguing since Friday, Feb. 21. According to her testimony, Stokes had used crystal methamphetamine that Friday, which had initiated their arguments. She testified that she usually knows when he is taking drugs because he would get violent, usually for a couple of days.

The victim testified that she had come home from work around 2 p.m. and cleaned the house and said Stokes was sitting in the bedroom during that time. She said she was doing laundry in the laundry room when Stokes stormed in. She testified that he pushed her from the laundry room to the couch.

She claims she was forced onto the couch and hit the cushions face-first. She testified that her injuries from the incident included a black eye, a bloody nose, and a cut lip.

The victim’s daughter and sister called her, and her sister called 911.

The Michigan State Police officer on the scene, Brett Immel, corroborated much of the victim’s testimony in his own testimony.

Immel said that when he came to the house, Stokes answered the door. Immel said that Stokes was confrontational and argumentative and did not want Immel to see the victim.

In a conversation with Stokes, he said that the dog had given the victim a black eye.

Immel investigated and saw that there was blood on a sweatshirt, which the victim testified she had used to clean up the blood from her nose, and he saw blood on the victim’s shirt. He also observed that the victim had a black eye and that Stokes appeared uninjured. After investigating, Immel arrested Stokes.

During Thursday’s examination, the victim also testified that she was forced onto the floor where Stokes sat on top of her and next to her, though she did not indicate for how long he was in either position. Some details of the situation she could not remember clearly, like what Stokes was trying to argue with her about while the violence was occurring.

The victim said she thought they sat there after the incident occurred until 7:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. The victim said that she did not call the police herself because it would rile up Stokes. Her phone was on the kitchen table, she said, which is less than 10 feet from the couch.

During the cross-examination, Defense Attorney Dennis Grenkowicz asked the victim about an alleged knife-throwing incident that occurred in December, where the victim had allegedly thrown a knife at Stokes. The prosecuting attorney objected for relevance.

Grenkowicz explained that he was trying to establish whether there was mutual combat. Judge Alan Curtis did not think that the incident was relevant to the case since it occurred two months ago.

The victim testified that the knife incident was a false allegation.

Judge Alan Curtis said that this was Stokes’s third offense. He said that the evidence from testimony pointed to an act of battery since Stokes intentionally touched the victim in an offensive manner.

The case was bound over to circuit court where Stokes awaits arraignment.

Reagan Voetberg can be reached at 989-358-5683 or rvoetberg@TheAlpenaNews.com.