A married Pennsylvania state trooper was arrested after allegedly falsely committing his ex-girlfriend to a mental health facility and assaulting the woman, prosecutors announced.
"I know you’re not crazy, I’ll paint you as crazy," state trooper Ronald Davis, 37, allegedly told his ex, only identified as M.F. by prosecutors, leading up to her being falsely committed to a mental health program.
Davis was arrested Thursday, according to the Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office. He is accused of beginning the process of getting M.F. committed on Aug 21, according to the affidavit, when he contacted other state troopers and claimed the woman had mental health issues.
The District Attorney’s Office said Davis is married with a family in the county. He had been dating M.F. for about four months before she was committed to the facility.
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After receiving advice from other officers, he contacted county leaders using his trooper email when he was off-duty and claimed his ex was suicidal and was seeking an order to have her committed.
He obtained the order and set out to take the woman to the facility before other troopers reached her, according to court documents.
"I’ll take care of it myself," he reportedly said.
A civilian reportedly accompanied Davis to detain the woman, who was found in a picnic area at a state forest, and recorded him sitting on M.F., before police officials showed up.
"You’re insane," she said. "You’re absolutely insane… and then you paint me to look insane."
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The DA’s office published footage of M.F.’s detention, which showed Davis holding the woman on the ground in a "wrestling-style hold," including to the point the woman said she wasn’t able to breathe.
She also said repeatedly that she didn’t understand why she was being detained and asked, "Why are you treating me like a criminal?"
"He obtained a involuntary commitment for her under the Mental Health Procedures Act. Without waiting for other troopers, he took a civilian acquaintance and used substantial force upon her. The acquaintance captured the use of force on video. That video is incorporated into the probable cause affidavit. The video and text communications with Davis show that M.F. was rational and the involuntary commitment was improper," the DA said in its press release.
M.F. appeared to "genuinely lack understanding on why she is being restrained," the affidavit said.
She was left with injuries to her forehead, torso, back, buttocks, forearms, knee and lower body following Davis’ detention of her, according to court documents.
Authorities were seen in the video arriving on the scene and M.F. was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill, where she was held for five days despite not showing signs of suicidal thoughts during that time period, according to prosecutors. She was released on Aug. 26 and was then interviewed by police on the matter.
Investigators found texts between the former couple, which did discuss suicide but in a hypothetical context, leading police to believe she was improperly committed to the mental health facility.
"While Trooper Davis provided text messages from [the victim]… and purported them to be suicidal, he failed to provide the full context of those messages," the affidavit alleged. "In fact, the text messages were the culmination of a larger, domestic dispute between he and the victim. Taken in context, the texts revealed her frustration with Trooper Davis and his controlling behavior… not a true desire to harm herself."
Davis is facing charges of felony strangulation, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and official oppression.
