Morgan Absher

By the time a deputy with the Sanders County Sheriff's Office arrived, it was just after midnight on April 14th.

The deputy found Jermaine out front of the residence, upset and injured.

Nearby, two tribal police officers were detaining Michael.

Jermaine told the deputy that her night started with plans to meet Michael about 40 miles away in Missoula for a trip to a Walmart and a China buffet.

But Jermaine had decided to stay home instead, so Michael returned to Ashley furious, saying that he had waited over an

hour for her to meet him, and she didn't show.

According to Jermaine, she grabbed her belongings she had at Michael's place and told him she was going to her great-grandfather's house.

But as she tried to walk away, Michael ended up attacking her from behind.

He ended up shoving her into his family's van, pinned her down, punched her in the ear, temple, and cheekbone, spat on her, verbally abused her, and then he walked off.

Jermaine also told the deputy that Michael had previously said things to her like, quote, if I can't have you, nobody can.

After taking her statement, the deputy photographed Jermaine's face, which showed bruising on her cheekbone and around her left temple.

Officers also took pictures of Michael's hands, showing swollen knuckles on his right hand.

The deputy arrested Michael and charged him with partner family member assault, or PFMA, which is essentially Montana's way of describing misdemeanor domestic violence.

Michael did spend the night in jail, and these details were uncovered by Connie Walker, the journalist we mentioned, who...

She ended up actually seeing this full arrest report, including police photos of Jermaine's bruised cheekbone and Michael's swollen knuckles.

But before those bruises really even got a chance to heal, Jermaine and Michael had seemingly gotten back together.

And this is obviously a very complex situation.

I mean, I talk about it on Too Hot Takes a lot because we do get a lot of these stories from, you know, people writing in.

But it, on average, takes someone seven attempts to leave an abusive relationship.

And there's so many psychological factors.