CLEARFIELD – A Clearfield man who was conditionally reinstated to the Lawrence Township Police Department may be in trouble again.
Matthew R. Houser, 29, is the subject of a state police investigation.
According to a police report, Houser is charged with simple assault and harassment after an incident that happened on Turnpike Avenue in Clearfield Borough Saturday.
Court documents in the case allege that Houser and a 23-year-old DuBois woman arrived in the upper parking lot at Clearfield Hospital at about 1 a.m. Once there, the couple left Houser’s truck and got into the alleged victim’s car with Houser in the driver’s seat.
The pair argued, and Houser reportedly grabbed the woman’s hands and placed them behind her back. They got out of the car with Houser again grabbing her hands and placing them behind her back. Houser is accused of pushing the woman into his truck with her back hitting the truck.
Both then got into Houser’s truck with Houser driving.
The alleged victim said Houser grabbed her hair, punched her left arm and grabbed her right ankle before she could flee the scene.
When she was interviewed Saturday night, the woman involved said she and Houser left Dinger’s Grand Slam Grille and Groggery in Clearfield Borough to drive to her car.
She said Houser “became upset” when she told him that she did not want him to drive her to DuBois.
She said he grabbed her hands and placed them behind her back two times before telling her he was going to take her to the Lawrence Township Police Department to have her arrested for driving under the influence and public drunkenness. The alleged victim was able to get away, and she said that while she was running, Houser was yelling for her to come back so that he could take her to the police station.
Houser was also interviewed by a state police trooper on Saturday after being informed of his rights.
Houser stated that he was at Dinger’s with the alleged victim. While there, he said he drank two or three beers.
The alleged victim, he said, left the bar and called to say that she wrecked her car.
Houser and a friend went to dig her car out of the snow with the help of the Lawrence Township Police Department. Although police did not release any names, their reports Monday morning stated that officers helped in removing a vehicle from a snow bank on U.S. Route 322 sometime between Friday and Monday.
Houser said that after the car was out of the snow, he drove her to a Turnpike Avenue business. They then went back to Dinger’s for a while.
Houser said he was driving the woman home when they got into an argument in Luthersburg. He turned the vehicle around and dropped her off at her car.
He said she called him shortly after to say that she wrecked her car again.
Houser drove to where she was, and he said she ran up to his truck, putting about five dents in the door. She then got in his truck and allegedly punched him in the ear.
He said he told her to get out, but she refused, as Houser said, “Until I faked like I was calling the police.”
Houser said he did not want the woman arrested for hitting him or for damaging his truck as long as she paid for the damage.
He was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Michael Rudella and released on $2,500 unsecured bail.
Houser’s name was recently in the news after he was conditionally reinstated to the Lawrence Township Police Department by an arbitrator. Lawrence Township Solicitor Jim Naddeo said at the Feb. 20 Lawrence Township Supervisor’s meeting that Houser’s reinstatement was contingent upon Houser signing a condition to the award that would bind him to all terms and conditions of the award. Houser had until Feb. 26, the date the reinstatement is effective, to sign the letter.
The Lawrence Township Supervisors voted to appeal the decision. Houser was not placed on active duty as a police officer because of that appeal.
Houser had been removed from the force twice, according to Naddeo. Officials noted that both times were due to “detrimental conduct,” including allegedly breaking into a former police chief’s office. Another issue that may have had something to do with Houser’s second dismissal was an assault he was accused of engaging in. A jury found Houser not guilty of the assault. He was found guilty of summary charges of harassment and disorderly conduct. On another count of disorderly conduct he was found not guilty.
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