HANCOCK COUNTY — A New Palestine man who was arrested and accused in July 2018 of three felonies and two misdemeanors stemming from a domestic violence incident found out his fate earlier this week.
Steven Mcaloon, 35, of the 6000 block of West U.S. 52, was found guilty on Wednesday, Nov. 27, of three felony charges after a bench trial in Hancock County Circuit Court. Judge Scott Sirk said it was clear from the evidence and testimony during the trial that Mcaloon had been an aggressor in a confrontation with a woman. A probable cause affidavit said the woman told police on July 7, 2018, that the defendant had hit her, pointed a firearm at her, had taken her phone and physically abused her.
During the trial, however, the woman gave vague answers when questioned by the deputy prosecutor, Adriana Zeljkovic. She told the court she couldn’t remember a lot of things about the night because she was distraught. She was soft-spoken and cried while on the witness stand.
According to the affidavit, filed shortly after the incident in support of the charges against Mcaloon, the woman also told police the defendant had been using methamphetamine and had access to a rifle at the house. However, when police tried to find Mcaloon, he was not in the house, the affidavit said.
At one point, according to the affidavit, Mcaloon said, “You’re gonna die tonight,” she told police. The affidavit also stated the woman told police Mcaloon slammed her to the ground and grabbed at her phone, breaking her left pinky and ring fingers.
Mcaloon’s attorney, Mitchell Solomon of Indianapolis, asked Sirk to dismiss the three felony charges before the defense presented its case, but the judge declined.
Mcaloon was called to the stand and told the court there had been no argument; that he hadn’t hit the woman; and that he wasn’t even at the house at the time the woman claimed she was injured.
“No one ever witnessed me at that home,” Mcaloon said.
Zeljkovic noted the case was a classic example of a domestic violence incident in which the victim changes her story between time of the attack and a trial. “This shows the amount of control the perpetrator has over a victim, not just over their physical space but their mental space and their life,” Zeljkovic said.
A police officer called by the prosecution to testify said domestic violence victims often are more credible right after an incident than they are later in court. The officer admitted he didn’t personally see any crime committed against the woman.
Sirk found Mcaloon guilty of intimidation where the defendant draws or uses a deadly weapon, a Level 5 felony; along with pointing a firearm at another person and domestic battery resulting in moderate bodily injury, both Level 6 felonies.
Before the trial began, Mcaloon’s attorney, Solomon, entered a guilty plea on two Class A misdemeanor charges Mcaloon was facing for resisting law enforcement and false informing.
Sirk set Mcaloon’s sentencing for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 9, 2020, and ordered he be held in custody until that time.
