Man Accused of Assaulting Plymouth Woman

A Brooklyn Park man has been charged with beating and strangling a Plymouth woman after she took change out of his pocket to buy a can of soda.

Tracy Joe Ford, 38, is charged with three felonies in the March 23 incident: second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine; making terroristic threats, which has a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine; and domestic assault by strangulation, which has a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Ford remains in the Hennepin County Jail on a $40,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled May 4 in Hennepin County District Court.

According to the criminal complaint, compiled by Plymouth Police Officer Jeff Dorfsman, police were called to an apartment in the 3300 block of Highway 169 just before 9:30 p.m. March 25 after a neighbor reported hearing a woman being beaten in an adjacent apartment.

When police knocked on the door, the victim answered with tears streaming down her face, according to Dorfsman’s account. She told police that Ford had assaulted her then yelled and sworn at her when he learned that she had taken change out of his pocket to use in a vending machine.

As the argument intensified, Ford grabbed the victim’s arms, then put his hands around her neck and squeezed, she told police. He also hit her several times with a Nerf baseball bat and used the bat to strangle her again by pressing it against her neck as she lay on the bed, the complaint charges.

Ford also brandished a pocketknife at the victim, poking her with it on her face, she told officers.

Police recovered a pocketknife in the apartment. The neighbor who reported the assault told officers that he heard a man yelling and swearing and objects falling over and hitting walls. At one point, the neighbor said that Ford had yelled, “Breathe, [expletive]” at the victim.

Ford’s criminal record in Minnesota, dating back to 1994, includes convictions for attempted kidnapping in 1994, making terroristic threats in 1999, violating an order for protection in 2000, interfering with an emergency call in 2004 and fifth-degree assault in 2008.