By Ashley Meeks
Las Cruces Sun-News
LAS CRUCES — A 44-year-old woman who allegedly ripped off her daughter-in-law’s nipple during a drunken argument could be facing criminal charges, the 3rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office confirmed Wednesday.
Las Cruces police officers responded to Memorial Medical Center on Sunday morning, when doctors were already in the process of reattaching the right nipple to the 30-year-old victim’s breast.
The victim told officers she, her husband, his mother and one of her husband’s friends had spent Saturday night drinking at an apartment in the 1000 block of Idaho Avenue, according to the police report. Sometime after 3 a.m., the victim’s husband had started arguing with his mother, and because it was becoming “very intense,” the victim went to stand between the two to separate them.
When the victim began arguing with her 44-year-old mother-in-law, the older woman allegedly “grabbed (the victim’s) right breast and began to squeeze and pull on her nipple.” The victim yelled for her to stop, but her mother-in-law allegedly continued to pull until the younger woman punched her in the face, according to the police report.
The victim told police she threw her mother-in-law into the yard, but the older woman allegedly kicked in the back door and had to be physically removed again. It was when the victim was putting her mother-in-law’s belongings in the yard that she realized there was blood on her shirt.
Police tried to make contact with the mother-in-law — a convicted felon who, according police, spent 2 years in prison for drug possession and being a habitual offender earlier in the decade — but were unable to immediately find her. She could be charged with felony aggravated battery against a household member.
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