Woman recants, says husband didn’t attack

A woman who said she was beaten with a baseball bat and then threatened with her life by her husband admitted she made up the whole story while under the influence of prescribed drugs and it was she who attacked her husband with the bat.

“I didn’t know what I was doing,” said Deborah Thweat as she stood before General Sessions Judge Larry Ross this week, asking charges of domestic assault be dropped against her husband, Phillip Thweat.

Thweat had claimed her husband, in a fit of drunken rage this August, beat her about the face with his fists and then picked up a baseball bat and began striking her. She claimed she was able to escape and seek refuge with family members. She did have injuries to her left eye which was swollen, according to lawmen who worked the case.

With statements made that Mr. Thweat might be armed, the local SWAT team was called out to surround a residence on Red Road where they thought he was hiding. He was not found on that occasion but was hauled in later in the week.

The revelation by Mrs. Thweat the whole story was a drug-induced hoax did not sit well with prosecutors nor the court, with Ross openly suggesting she may be changing her story to get her soon-to-be ex-husband out of trouble.

“I’ve been on a lot of medications over the years but never has it made me pick up a baseball bat and beat somebody with it and then lie about the whole thing,” Ross said in dismissing the case against Mr. Thweat. “If what you are telling me now is not the truth, I’m afraid you’ve just given this man permission to do anything he wants to you in the future.”

The Thweats were allowed to walk away free following court Tuesday, although Mrs. Thweat was ordered to pay court costs. However, charges are pending against Mrs. Thweat either for perjury, filling a false report or perhaps for the crimes she admitted to in front of the judge which could include aggravated assault since she admitted hitting her husband with a baseball bat and threatening his life.

It is not known if she will be billed for the extra time the sheriff’s SWAT team spent preparing to storm the house where they believed Mr. Thweat was hiding.