Dinner dispute leads to alleged assault

BIG SPRINGS , CA— An argument over a meal resulted in one man being sent to the hospital and a woman landing in jail on Sept. 21.

According to Susan Gravenkamp, Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office public information representative, 24-year-old Breanna Lynn Charlan of Montague, had been arrested at the Big Springs residence where she and her boyfriend were staying at.

Gravenkamp said that the arrest stemmed from an alleged incident that happened between Charlan and 34-year-old Jason Patrick Tarwater.

Tarwater, she said, had been allowing Charlan and her boyfriend to stay at his residence.

Gravenkamp said that on Sunday evening, sheriff’s deputies had been called to another Big Springs home. There, they found Tarwater being treated by medical personnel — he had a 3-inch laceration on his head.

Tarwater told deputies that he and Charlan had been arguing over “something stupid.”

Charlan then, Gravenkamp stated, struck Tarwater in the head several times, using a railroad spike-driving maul’s handle. “Basically, it’s a 3-foot-long axe handle,” she explained.

After the alleged attack, Charlan and her boyfriend transported Tarwater to a neighboring house, whose occupants had contacted the sheriff’s dispatch.

The deputies went to Tarwater’s home, where they contacted Charlan.

“Her version of the story is that she had cooked dinner. Tarwater wasn’t happy with the meal,” Gravenkamp said.

According to Charlan, Gravenkamp reported, Tarwater “forcefully pushed his middle finger against her forehead, upsetting her.” Charlan told Tarwater not to touch her again.

A Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office press release stated that Tarwater, according to Charlan’s claims, then approached her in a “threatening manner.”

“That’s when Charlan hit (Tarwater) with the maul’s handle,” Gravenkamp said.

Deputies arrested Charlan without incident, she said, and was booked into the Siskiyou County Jail on the charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Her bail is set at $25,000.

In a phone interview, Gravenkamp said that the weapon had been recovered by deputies.

Tarwater was later treated at Fairchild Medical Center in Yreka and later released, the sheriff’s office reported.