Dishwashing fight yields felony charges

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - A Terre Haute man is arrested, accused of hitting a juvenile with his car after a fight over washing dishes.

On Wednesday, police were called to the 1100 block of Locust on reports of a battery. Once there, they met a male juvenile who had suffered scrapes and cuts on his elbows and knees.

The juvenile told police the incident began earlier in the day, when his mother came into his bedroom and told him to get up and wash dishes. The youth said he told her he would wash dishes later, but said his mother’s boyfriend Melvin James soon entered the room, and also told him to wash dishes.

The juvenile said he then walked outside and got on his bicycle, but he said James confronted him and soon began chasing him down the street in his car.

Eventually, the boy said James rammed the back of his bicycle in the parking lot of a grocery store, knocking the youth off the bike and bending a back tire. The boy said he then traveled on foot to a nearby business where he called police.

Police spoke to James at a home on Locust Street, where he admitted hitting the bike but told them the boy jumped off the bike before his car hit it. Some of those close to James have told News 10 the incident occurred differently than described by police, and one neighbor said she saw the juvenile throw his bike in front of James's car. 

James was arrested and faces preliminary felony charges of Battery with a Deadly Weapon Resulting in  Injury and Leaving the Scene of a Property-Damaging Accident. He also faces a preliminary charge of Resisting Law Enforcement on accusations he struggled with police when they tried to handcuff him.  

James is being held in the Vigo County Jail on a $25,000 cash bond.