An eighth-grade teacher at Laurin Middle School is facing charges of domestic violence assault after allegedly attacking his wife on more than one occasion.
Battle Ground Public Schools has not yet decided whether Michael Jon Brotherton will be placed on administrative leave pending the criminal case.
“We’re aware that the charges have been filed and are investigating,” school district spokeswoman Rita Sanders said Monday.
School is closed this week for spring break so the district will determine whether Brotherton will return to work prior to school resuming, Sanders said.
Brotherton, 46, of Brush Prairie has been summoned to appear April 10 in Clark County Superior Court on two counts of second-degree domestic violence assault. The charges were filed March 27.
His wife told police that on Feb. 3 he became angry with her because she was five minutes late getting home from a class. He said that he felt like their family was not her priority. Brotherton then grabbed her face and covered her nose and mouth, restricting her airway and causing her mouth to bleed, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The victim said that Brotherton would “choke” her almost monthly, the affidavit said.
She also reported that on Sept. 18, 2016, Brotherton strangled her until she fell unconscious. During the assault, she said she thought he was going to kill her. She tried to call 911 before losing consciousness, she said, but Brotherton took her phone and broke it, court records said.
Her phone was repaired a few days later, and she used the camera function to photograph bruises on her neck and wrists from the assault. She sent the photos to her parents and told them to save them in case anything happened to her. She then deleted the photos from her phone, she said, so Brotherton wouldn’t find them, according to court documents. Investigators said the woman’s parents provided them with the photos.
Brotherton’s wife filed a temporary protection order against him Feb. 12, seeking custody of their two children and requesting that Brotherton surrender his firearms. His wife wrote, “numerous guns on property — too many to name them all.”
“He has on numerous occasions (said) he will kill me if I leave him,” she wrote in the petition.
In her written statement, Brotherton’s wife said that on one occasion in January, he took her car keys and phone, preventing her from leaving the house.
“On numerous occasions he will hold me down until I submit. He forces me to agree with him and promise not to leave. He has trackers on everything and a video surveillance in case I try to leave the house,” she wrote.
She wrote that the abuse started when she was pregnant.
“He told me — promised me — he would kill me if I ever tried to divorce him. He said, ‘I won’t go through losing my kids again,’ ” she wrote.
Brotherton also has children with a former wife. That woman also filed a temporary protection order against him in 2005, alleging that Brotherton would become angry, break things and threaten violence, according to court records.
In his response to his current wife’s petition, Brotherton wrote that he came home Feb. 8 and found his wife and children were gone. He became worried so he contacted law enforcement later that evening and learned that his family was safe, and he was under investigation.
He denied all of the allegations against him in the petition for the protection order.
According to court documents, Brotherton also agreed to take a polygraph test, after contacting his attorney John Terry. He answered no to questions about assaulting his wife and threatening to kill her. The test found that “Brotherton’s reactions were consistent with those of a truthful individual.”
Brotherton wrote in court documents that he’s worked as a history and English teacher for 19 years.
Sanders did not immediately know how long Brotherton has worked for the district or how long he’s been at Laurin Middle School.
