Man accused of sending mother to ER

A Havre man is in jail for allegedly beating his mother and causing several bruises over her body and three broken bones.

Arnold Ray Wagner, 59, is in the Hill County Detention Center for aggravated partner or family member assault and life-threatening assault.

Court documents say a Hill County sheriff’s deputy responded to Northern Montana Hospital emergency room Tuesday after 9 a.m., where a woman said her son, Wagner, “beat her up.”

The documents say the deputy found the woman with deep bruises on her arms and tops of her hands, a blackened left eye and a bruise on the left side of her forehead. The woman said her son also twisted her leg. Her leg was in a splint, and there was a bruise on her knee cap, documents say.

The woman told the deputy multiple times not to tell her son that she was talking to law enforcement and added that he was “just mean,” documents say. She said she was afraid of Wagner.

Two deputies went to talk to Wagner at the residence on First Street West where he and his mother live.

Wagner told officers that his mother’s injuries happened when she fell in the middle of the night. Deputies smelled alcohol on Wagner’s breath, documents say.

Deputies told Wagner that the injuries his mother incurred did not reflect those of an elderly lady falling.

“Arnold did not answer,” documents say.

Wagner was then arrested.

Sheriff Don Brostrom said this morning that the incident is under investigation and that he could provide no additional information.