Woman arrested after allegedly hitting hotel staff with broken furniture
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POCATELLO — A woman police say struck two hotel employees during an altercation has been charged with aggravated battery.
Margaret Chantel Hudson, 53, faces the felony charge for causing great bodily harm or permanent disability, court records show.
Officers with the Pocatello Police Department were called to a hotel on the 1300 block of Bench Road just before midnight Sunday, Oct. 30, for a disturbance report, according to an affidavit of probable cause. The caller said a woman, later identified as Hudson, was refusing to leave and had hit hotel staff.
When they arrived, officers spoke with one of the victims, who said Hudson had struck her with a floor lamp. The victim told officers she was experiencing significant pain in her hand, which had been hit before being crushed by the room door.
The victim told officers the room directly below Hudson’s was flooding from the ceiling, the affidavit says. When hotel staff went to Hudson’s room, she denied them access and barricaded the door, the victim told police.
Using a “special tool,” staff were able to open the door. As they did so, Hudson first struck the female victim then used a piece of broken furniture to hit a male hotel employee in the leg.
Due to the level of pain the female victim was experiencing, police requested EMS, who after evaluating her injury recommended she go to the hospital.
Hudson was arrested and taken to Bannock County Jail where she is being held on a $25,000 bond.
She is also being held on a warrant, which was issued Tuesday after she violated the terms of her release in connection to Oct. 4 drug arrest.
Though Hudson has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean she committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
If she is found guilty, Hudson could face up to 15 years for aggravated battery. She could also face up to seven years for the October drug possession charge.
Hudson is scheduled to appear in court before Magistrate Judge Carol Tippi Jarman for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 14.