Salem woman arrested for battery

By: 
Staff Writer Kate Wehlann

Jill Kokoska, 64, Salem, was arrested and preliminarily charged with battery resulting in bodily injury after an altercation with her adult daughter Wednesday, Oct. 16.

Salem Police Officers Tyler Gregory and Sergeant James Moore responded to a verbal argument at Kokoska’s home on Marshall Avenue around 9:15 p.m. In Gregory’s report, he said Kokoska greeted the officers, saying “I am done; I want her gone,” and “She pushed me; I am a 68-year-old woman. She could have hurt me,” while pointing at her daughter, Deanna Bowman, 32, who was sitting on a living room chair with her cell phone.

Gregory said Kokoska claimed Bowman had recently gotten out of an abusive relationship and she had allowed Bowman to move in because “she has no one else because she p***** them all off,” later saying this is why she also dropped a protective order she had against her daughter. She claimed Bowman had been driving around in a vehicle with no registration and that Kokoska and her husband were planning to move to North Carolina for the winter, but that her husband didn’t want Bowman living in the house without them because “she would tear everything in the house up.” She told Gregory Bowman had yelled that Kokoska couldn’t kick her out and would “have to evict me first.” She said she took Bowman’s key while Bowman was outside and tried to shut the door. When Bowman tried to push her way back in, she pushed Kokoska in the process.

Gregory said he told her Kokoska would need to obtain an eviction notice in order to remove Bowman from the home. He suggested the two women just stay in separate rooms until she could obtain an eviction notice the next day.

Moore, who had been speaking with Bowman, told Gregory that Bowman told him she had gone outside to smoke and her mother had tried to lock her out. When she noticed what was going on, Bowman reportedly shoved her foot in the door and the door went back and hit Kokoska, who then called the police.

The officers left the home, but returned again within the hour after Bowman called and said Kokoska had hit her. They arrived to see Bowman crying on the porch steps, holding the back of her head.

Gregory’s report said Bowman claimed Kokoska came outside on the phone with Kokoska’s husband and handed her the phone, saying Kokoska’s husband wanted to speak to Bowman. Bowman told the officers Kokoska then pulled her ponytail so hard Bowman struck her head on the concrete. Bowman requested an ambulance to check her out. Gregory said Kokoska then appeared in the doorway and “said, ‘ahhh poor baby’ very smug like.” Gregory said he told Kokoska to go back inside.

Gregory said Kokoska told him she had called her husband, who’d wanted to speak with Bowman, and when Kokoska handed Bowman the phone, she claimed Bowman had thrown the phone back at her. Kokoska said she told Bowman, “I am going to call DCS; you won’t see your kids,” and then Bowman was “magically injured.”

EMTs told Gregory that Bowman had a knot on the back of her head and Bowman requested to go to the hospital for additional treatment. It was at the hospital she told officers she wanted to press charges.

The officers returned to Marshall Avenue and arrested Kokoska. While en route to the Washington County Detention Center, Gregory asked Kokoska if she had ever been in a situation like this before. He said she told him she had, about 20 years before. She said her ex-husband had hurt her and then called the police to claim she had hurt him. She said she went to jail following that incident.

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