Crime & Safety
Man Charged for Punching Girlfriend in Face
Crime took place near Palmer Township line.
A Bethlehem Township police officer responded to a domestic violence call early Saturday on Bayard Street near the Palmer Township line. It was around 4:35 a.m.
Patrolman Robert Stametz didn’t get the news from the woman who called 911. She was hiding in the basement.
He knocked on the door and got the news from a 13-year-old boy. The teen told the officer that his father, Scott Brian Peterson, just punched Peterson’s girlfriend in the face.
Stametz took Peterson, 41, into investigative custody until he could find the woman, whom he eventually located in the basement, court records say. She told the officer that Peterson punched her in the left side of her face. The blow caused “immediate bruising,” the records say.
The records also say the woman told the 911 dispatcher she could not speak very loudly but was able to provide her name and address.
Peterson was charged with simple assault and harassment. He was arraigned later Saturday by on-duty District Judge John Capobianco of Nazareth and committed to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $2,500 bail.