A 22-year-old Lawrence woman was frightened and bleeding severely from her crotch area when she was found in a car that police stopped one night last October, according to testimony today in Douglas County District Court.

“She had significant injuries,” Lawrence police officer Robert Neff said.

Officers found blood on the car’s back seat where the woman had been sitting, and they saw that blood was dripping from her pants onto the pavement as she was helped from the car, Neff said.

Neff testified at the start of a preliminary hearing for Matthew P. Jaeger, 22, who faces several charges for allegedly attacking the woman at her Lawrence apartment on Oct. 9 and then forcing her into his car. Neff was one of several officers who responded to a report of a disturbance at an apartment complex in the 1200 block of George Court.

A car matching the description of one seen leaving the complex was stopped by officers several blocks away. The woman was sitting in the back seat with a man who officers identified as Jaeger. She sat with her knees together and her hands holding her crotch, Neff said.

The woman refused to respond or get out of the car despite several requests, Neff said. Instead, the woman often glanced over at Jaeger, he said.

“She looked extremely frightened of him,” Neff said.

Police were able to help the woman to an ambulance and take her to Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Medical staff at the hospital were stunned when they saw the damage that had been inflicted on the woman’s vagina, Neff said.

During cross-examinations by Carl Cornwell, Jaeger’s attorney, the driver of the car said he was trying to take the woman to the hospital. He said Jaeger also wanted the woman taken to the hospital.

The driver, Evan Carroll, said he and Jaeger had gone to the woman’s apartment after a night of drinking. Carroll said there was a struggle in the apartment between the woman and Jaeger and that Jaeger forced the woman into the car.

Testimony this morning revealed that Jaeger and the woman had a rocky relationship at the time of the incident and that another man was with her the night Jaeger went to her apartment. That man fled after Jaeger allegedly broke out the apartment’s front window and climbed in.