A State College man already behind bars for allegedly beating his wife just got hit with new criminal charges.
Benjamin Budd, 34, has been at the Centre County Correctional Facility on $75,000 bail since May 5, but Magisterial District Judge Kelley Gillette-Walker has now added an additional $10,000 for a second set of alleged crimes.
Budd first attracted the attention of police on May 4, when officers responded to a call about a car crash at the intersection of Trout Road and Mountain Laurel Drive in College Township. Budd’s new charges — including unauthorized use of a vehicle — a misdemeanor — stem from the accident.
However, officers put Budd’s traffic offenses on the back burner after speaking to his wife. While looking into the accident police officers discovered Budd’s wife was in the hospital. she reportedly told officers her injuries had nothing to do with the car crash.
She reportedly told officers that Budd had repeatedly beaten and abused her over the past seven years. Police say that she was in the hospital for injuries consistent with domestic abuse, including bruises around her neck that supported her claim she’d been choked.
Police charged Budd with aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment, making terroristic threats and harassment — but now there are those new charges.
Budd allegedly took his wife’s car without permission and crashed it, causing over $1,700 worth of damage — more than the estimated value of the car he was driving. He reportedly swerved to avoid an obstacle in the road, crossed the center lane, flipped the car, demolished a mailbox and tore up a lawn owned by a homeowner’s association.
In addition to the new unauthorized use of a vehicle charged, Budd is also charged with multiple minor traffic offenses. He remains in the Centre County Correctional Facility while awaiting a new preliminary hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning.
