A Fredericksburg woman was arrested Wednesday on charges she assaulted a detective who had come to her home to investigate a robbery she reported last week, police said.
Johana Yvette Silva, 30, was initially interviewed by city police Sept. 27 at the Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center.
Police said she told them she had just gotten to her home in the 200 block of Kings Mill Court in the Kendalwood apartment complex off U.S. 1 when her cat ran out the door.
She said she was looking for the cat in nearby woods when she was attacked from behind, beaten unconscious and robbed. Police said she had extensive bruising and a fractured finger and couldn't remember how she got to the hospital or where she'd been prior to coming home.
City police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said Detectives Doug Perkins and Wayne Hunnicutt went to Silva's home Wednesday to follow up on the robbery report. The detectives, who had made an appointment to meet with Silva, soon noticed that the wallet she had reported stolen was beside Silva on the couch.
Bledsoe said the woman tried to sit on the wallet once it was pointed out and became angry when detectives continued to ask about it. After they threatened to get a search warrant for the wallet, police said the woman got even more irate and hit Perkins. She continued to resist as she was taken into custody.
Silva was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice, resisting arrest and assault on a law enforcement officer. She was placed in the Rappahannock Regional Jail.
It was at least the third time this year city police have arrested Silva. She was charged with vandalism and extortion following an August incident in which she was accused of keying another woman's car during a dispute in a parking lot.
Police said Silva had accused a woman of putting a dent in her car and offered not to call the police if the woman gave her $100. She became upset after the woman, who denied doing anything to Silva's car, declined the offer.
She was also arrested in April after she pawned a cellphone and returned to the store and asked to get some contact numbers out of it. When the merchant complied with her request, she left with the phone that she'd already been paid for.
She was convicted of petty larceny in July and got a suspended sentence.
Bledsoe said police are continuing the robbery investigation with a "discerning eye."
Keith Epps: 540/374-5404
Email: kepps@freelancestar.com