Richland mayor’s girlfriend charged with hitting him

A Seattle woman is charged with hitting and biting the Richland mayor after a recent early-morning domestic dispute.

Mayor Bob Thompson’s girlfriend called Richland police on Feb. 22 to report she’d been assaulted.

But when the officers were done talking with the couple and saw Thompson’s bloodied face and bite marks on his hand, she was the one jailed.

April H. Moody, 53, of Seattle, is charged in Benton County District Court with a domestic violence simple assault.

Moody referred all questions to her Kennewick attorney, Kevin Holt, who declined to talk Friday about the case.

Thompson, 62, a criminal defense attorney, told the Herald it also would be inappropriate for him to talk about the pending case.

He said it will be prosecuted by another agency other than Richland to avoid any conflict of interest.

According to the criminal citation, two Richland officers were called to Thompson’s house on Lakeview Court at 1:32 a.m. Feb. 22 to investigate a domestic violence incident.

When they arrived, they found Moody sitting on the porch, smoking.

Officer Ron Schneider, the senior officer, went inside to talk with Thompson while Officer Cameron Fancher interviewed Moody.

Fancher said Moody had a “fat lip.” After some questioning, she said Thompson had slapped her.

“I found it surprising that she was so calm after she had been the one to call 911,” he wrote.

Fancher’s citation said Moody gave inconsistent answers about what happened.

“Moody could not or would not give any more details about why the altercation occurred or how it started,” he wrote.

She kept saying it was “a relationship thing,” he said. The couple’s argument got physical, she said, after he told her she needed to leave the house and she started to pack her bags.

Fancher said that inside the house, clothes were all over the floor, shelving was knocked down and items were broken.

Thompson denied hitting Moody and told the officers she suffers from a mental illness and “she had a ‘break’ today.” He repeatedly said he did not want her arrested.

“(He) stated he knew the laws and did not want Moody arrested. (He) stated that the reason she may have had a fat lip was because she had bit his hand and he was trying to push her off, but did not remember ever hitting her,” the citation said.

Officers concluded that based on Thompson’s injuries and Moody’s inconsistencies, she was arrested.

She was booked into the Benton County jail and released about noon on her own recognizance.

This story was originally published March 2, 2018 at 7:44 PM with the headline "Richland mayor’s girlfriend charged with hitting him."