AMERICAN FORK, Utah — A Springville woman has been arrested for allegedly hitting two women with a glass stein at a bar in American Fork last weekend, causing severe injuries.
According to police, 46-year-old Jennifer Lee Mooney was talking with two women at the bar around 12:40 a.m. Saturday. The two women went into the bathroom, and Mooney later followed them in.
Witnesses say Mooney hit one woman in the face with a beer stein, then looked at the other woman, paused, and hit her with the stein as well. She then left the bathroom and exited the bar.
Police tracked Mooney down after identifying her from security camera footage, and after a friend of Mooney's told police she saw her hit the two women in the restroom.
On Thursday, Mooney agreed to speak with police. She said the two women were "talking bad" about her boyfriend before they went into the bathroom. She needed to use the restroom, but she "had a feeling she would need to defend herself," court documents state, so she grabbed the stein before going in.
She claims one of the women punched her in the face, and then she pushed both women back in a self-defense attempt. She said after that, her memory was a blur. Later, while in a police vehicle, officers say she was recorded saying that she didn't remember "hitting them that hard."
Mooney was arrested on a third-degree felony count of aggravated assault and a class-B misdemeanor assault charge. She is being held without bail.
Police added that both women sustained facial injuries that required emergency room treatment and even surgery.
(Warning: Descriptions of injuries below may be considered graphic to some readers.)
The first woman who was hit suffered multiple fractures to her left orbital bone and her nose. She had to have surgery, in which metal plates and screws were inserted under her skin. She says it's painful to rotate her neck, and she now has blurred vision. The police report says it's unknown whether the visual impairment will be permanent.
The second woman sustained a small cut to her left eye, between the socket and the eyebrow. She also suffered fractures in her nose, the report states. As of Thursday, police did not know whether she would need surgery.
