Butler Twp. man indicted after police rescue girlfriend from home

Man also indicted last week on unrelated charges by Montgomery County grand jury

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

Credit: Montgomery County Jail

A Butler Twp. man was indicted Thursday for the second time in two weeks after police rescued a woman barricaded in the basement of a house with him following a domestic violence call.

Michael Shayne Rowles Sr., 50, is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court for two counts of kidnapping, and one count each of felonious assault and abduction. He also faces a misdemeanor domestic violence charge, according to his indictment.

Butler Twp. officers were called around 2 p.m. Feb. 8 to a home in the 3900 block of Little York Road after a caller reported that a man assaulted and strangled his girlfriend, according to a release from Butler Twp. police.

When officers arrived, the man and woman were barricaded in the basement. Police got a search warrant, and with assistance from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, went inside and rescued the woman.

The woman was taken to a local hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.

A negotiator eventually talked Rowles into coming out.

Rowles also faces charges in an unrelated case from June 2020 following his Feb. 10 indictment by a Montgomery County grand jury for assault of a police officer, improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, having weapons under disability for a prior drug conviction, aggravated possession of drugs and obstructing official business.

Rowles remains in the Montgomery County Jail, where he has been held since his Feb. 8 arrest by Butler Twp. police.

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