Mugshot of Charles Vanterpool III. By. THE VIRGIN ISLANDS POLICE DEPARTMENT.
ST. CROIX — A man has been arrested for domestic violence and false imprisonment after several bystanders supported reports that he assaulted his girlfriend.
A 911 call was placed on Friday at approximately 7:15 p.m. by someone reporting that their neighbor, Charles Vanterpool III, and his girlfriend had been involved in a physical altercation. The resident of the Auero Diaz housing complex advised that the woman’s arm might have been broken as a result, and also that she had been locked out of the apartment onto the porch, and thus was unable to leave the premises.
According to court documents, responding officers arrived at the location and met several bystanders who corroborated the neighbor’s report that Vanterpool was assaulting his girlfriend. The eyewitnesses claimed that such incidents were a regular occurrence.
When police approached the apartment and ordered Vanterpool to open the door, he reportedly refused. Officers noted that he seemed to be barricading the door from the inside with screws, using a power drill. At that point, they sought permission from a senior rank to breach the door due to the risk of serious injury to the woman involved. Once inside, police found her in a towel and ordered Vanterpool to the ground. He complied with this order and was detained while officers continued their preliminary investigations.
The neighbor told police that they had seen Vanterpool hit his girlfriend several times with a red pipe, one which the woman subsequently picked up and threw towards the neighbor. Vanterpool and his girlfriend were then taken to the Wilbur H. Francis Command to provide statements.
The woman, however, provided statements to police that contradicted the neighbors' account of the incident.
According to court documents, she told police that she had called her boyfriend to come home since it was getting late. He was irate when he arrived and began to argue loudly. She said that she went out onto the porch to calm down, but Vanterpool locked her out of the house. She spotted the red pipe at that time, she told officers, and decided to throw it over the porch in fear that he might choose to use it on her. However, she told officers that he grabbed the pipe and remonstrated with her for mishandling his tools. At that point a scuffle for control over the pipe ensued. She told police that Vanterpool relented after a while and allowed her back into the house. The woman told police that she sustained an injury on her arm while moving an air conditioning unit with her boyfriend earlier that day. She said she had no idea how the other two injuries to her arm were obtained, and denied reports that there had been a physical altercation between her and her boyfriend.
Vanterpool, although reportedly declining to make an official statement, nevertheless told police that he had been trying to calm his girlfriend down because she usually “acts up” when she is undergoing a menstrual cycle. He also denied claims of a physical altercation, and said that he had been barricading his front door to prevent police from coming inside. He echoed his girlfriend’s account that the injuries on her arm were from an air conditioning unit that fell out of their truck.
Despite these claims, officers noted that the apartment appeared ransacked and observed the laceration and welts on the woman’s arm. She was offered medical assistance and the services of a Victim’s Advocate, but reportedly declined.
Charles E. Vanterpool III, however, was arrested and charged with third-degree assault and false imprisonment, both as crimes of domestic violence. He was also charged with disturbance of the peace. He appeared in court on Monday May 23, for his advice of rights hearing, during which he was assessed bail of $200 in cash.
In May of 2022, Vanterpool was arrested for DUI following a vehicular collision.
