The court documents say West Chester police allege he “did knowingly cause serious physical harm to Shelley Couch” when he punched his wife in the face “multiple times and slammed her head onto a paved driveway multiple times.”
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Judge Greg Stephens set Couch’s trial date for Sept. 23. Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said the trial is expected to last four days.
Couch, who is represented by Cincinnati attorney,. R. Scott Croswell III, is free on $16,000 bond that was set by a municipal judge after his arrest.
The case was taken directly to a grand jury by Gmoser, who said he wanted to make sure there was transparency in the case of the well-known businessman.
The prosecutor said that, in the case of a felony charge, cooperation from a victim is not needed.
“I am always concerned when I have injuries that do not rise to the level of anything more that a misdemeanor. I don’t like to chase those cases on misdemeanors because it may be a case where the parties can work something out and I don’t want to interfere with those given the criminal context,” Gmoser said at Couch’s arraignment in March.
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“However, in a felony charge, the victim is merely a witness in the case. This is a case brought by the state of Ohio. I handle murder cases all the time where the victim is dead. We don’t need the victim to tell me what they want to do.”
Couch is the owner of Jeff Couch’s RV Nation in Trenton. He was booked into the Butler County Jail and held without bond for a weekend after his arrest. He was charged at 1:34 a.m. March 2 after police said he assaulted his wife on the way home from an event.
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