By Jessie Stensland / Whidbey News-Times
A Navy officer is facing a felony charge for making up a story about his girlfriend assaulting him in order to break up with her, according to court documents.
It was the second time that Oak Harbor resident Ryan M. Marx, 35, tried to use the police to break things off with the woman, according to court papers.
In the first case, Oak Harbor police responded to the couple’s home after Marx reported he was threatened by his 49-year-old girlfriend and asked police officers to “break up with her for him,” according to the report by officer Mike Brown.
Then in October, Marx — a lieutenant in the Navy and mixed marital arts fighter — told police his girlfriend had beat him for about an hour. Marx showed the officer a large bruise on his torso, which he said the woman caused. Marx claimed the woman also gouged his testicles multiple times.
Brown wrote in his report that the large bruise was not consistent with being punched by a hand; also, he noted that Marx had no defensive wounds or other visible injuries.
The woman denied assaulting Marx.
Four days later, Marx returned to the police station and admitted he had lied. He said he fabricated the story because “he was going through a break up and he wanted things to end,” Brown wrote. Marx said the bruise was from boxing.
The officer arrested Marx. A prosecutor charged him in Island County Superior Court July 30 with perjury.
This story originally appeared in the Whidbey News-Times, a sibling paper of The Daily Herald.
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