Five-Time Domestic Assault Convict Charged With Another Offense

A Hopkins man convicted of five domestic assault convictions in the past 10 years has yet again been charged with domestic assault, according to charging documents released Tuesday.

Westside Village resident Ralph Fitzgerald Martin, 48, came to officers’ attention July 4 when an unnamed woman reported she ran across the street because her husband had been beating her, Sgt. Michael Glassberg wrote in the charging documents.

She told police Martin had been drinking and becoming more aggressive as the night went on. She said at one point he slapped her in the face and dragged her by the hair across the apartment.

When she tried to call Hopkins police, he grabbed her cell phone and kept her from calling 911, she said. Eventually she was able to get out of the building and run across the street.

The woman’s cousin said Martin called looking for his wife and said, “Last night we got into it.”

Martin has been charged with felony domestic assault, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

He’s been convicted of five domestic violence-related convictions since July 2002, most recently a domestic assault conviction in July 2005.

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