photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Matthew Thaine Lee is pictured during a preliminary hearing on April 11, 2023, in Douglas County District Court. Lee was ordered to stand trial for aggravated criminal sodomy and aggravated domestic battery.

A Baldwin City man was ordered to stand trial on Tuesday after a witness testified that he choke-slammed, punched and sexually violated her, leaving her with vision loss and migraines.

The man, Matthew Thaine Lee, 58, is charged in Douglas County District Court with one felony count of aggravated sodomy of a 37-year-old woman, one felony count of aggravated domestic battery and one misdemeanor count of domestic battery, according to charging documents. Lee was originally charged with rape, but the charge was amended to sodomy prior to the preliminary hearing.

The charges relate to an incident that is alleged to have occurred on Feb. 6 in the 700 block of Chapel Street in Baldwin City, as the Journal-World reported.

Judge Amy Hanley ordered Lee to stand trial on the charges after the woman testified Tuesday that she and Lee had an argument that turned physical. She said she wasn’t sure of the timeline of when the argument started and when police arrived.

“I remember being choke-slammed,” she testified.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tatum asked the woman to clarify what she meant by “choke-slammed.”

She said that Lee choked her with one hand and that she could not breathe and then he picked her up and slammed her onto her bed. She testified that it left significant bruising on her neck.

Tatum presented to the court a photo of the woman taken by a medical examiner on the day of the incident that showed bruising on her neck, blackened eyes and hemorrhaging in the whites of her eyes.

The woman said that at some point during the argument Lee punched her with a closed fist, and the abuse spilled out into the yard of the residence. The woman said she tripped while outside and that she may have suffered injuries to her abdomen and tailbone from the fall but that she wasn’t sure.

She said she and Lee argued for a while outside before Lee walked off. She said that police arrived shortly thereafter and that she doesn’t know who called them.

She said she returned to LMH Health every day for a checkup over the next four days and that she still does not have full vision in one of her eyes. She added that she has neck pain when she sleeps and has frequent migraines that all began on Feb. 6.

During her testimony, Lee’s defense attorney, Branden Smith, objected to Tatum standing in the courtroom between the woman and Lee; he claimed that he, Smith, couldn’t see the witness during Tatum’s questioning.

Tatum said that she was trying to prevent Lee from making eye contact with the woman and that Lee was rustling papers and making noise while the woman was testifying.

“I am worried about the defendant trying to influence the witness,” Tatum said.

Hanley overruled Smith’s objection and said that she could see what Lee was doing and that it could be distracting. She said that if Smith couldn’t see the witness then he was welcome to move his chair over.

When Tatum began to ask the woman about allegations that the woman made to police on the day of the incident, the woman took a long pause.

According to the affidavit in support of Lee’s arrest, the woman told police on the day of the incident that Lee was a serial abuser who regularly forced her to submit to sexual acts and that she was afraid to tell police about what happened because Lee would harm her.

A Baldwin City police officer asked the woman that day to go to a medical examiner, and the officer observed her limping and groaning with pain as she got dressed. The woman told the officer “he’s gonna be pissed,” according to the affidavit.

While the woman was with the officer, Lee called the woman, and she was “visibly afraid” and insisted she answer so as not to anger Lee. On the call, the officer heard Lee ask on speaker phone why the woman had been taken by the police.

“I didn’t say nothing … because of my face … Yes I did fall down …” the woman told Lee while crying, according to the affidavit.

After the woman ended the call, the officer asked whether Lee was the one who injured her and the woman said “yes” and that it wasn’t the first time. She also alleged that he regularly sexually assaulted her, according to the affidavit.

When Tatum asked about the allegation of sexual assault on Tuesday the woman said, “I do not want to go forward,” and asked to take a recess.

After the recess the woman returned and clarified that she didn’t want to testify or to pursue charges against Lee. Tatum then asked if the statements she made to police on the day of the incident were true and if Lee did anything sexual to her that day.

The woman testified that everything that she told police that day was true and that he did violate her sexually during their argument.

Hanley ordered Lee to stand trial on Sept. 11. Lee has been in custody at the Douglas County Jail since his arrest on Feb. 6 and is being held on a $100,000 cash or surety bond.