Penfield, N.Y. - A fight between estranged spouses appears to be at the center of a serious car crash in Penfield early Tuesday morning.
The husband faces an assault charge for running a car off the road that contained his wife and another man. He also faces a charge of aggravated criminal contempt for allegedly violating an order of protection that was supposed to keep him away from his wife.
Meanwhile, the wife found herself facing a contempt charge for violating an order of protection. She was arrested at the hospital just hours after being in the car crash.
“He just basically attempted to kill me and another person, and I'm getting taken downtown for processing," Sarah Madden, 36, said in an exclusive interview with 13WHAM News.
According to Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Deputies, it all began around 2 a.m. at a motel on Empire Boulevard. That’s where Moses Madden, 38, confronted his estranged wife Sarah and a Hilton man that she was with.
"My ex-husband was waiting in the parking lot, pulled up in front of the car that I was riding in, blocked us in, got out of the car with a baseball bat and came up to the driver's side window and shattered the window with the bat," Madden recalled.
Madden said she was being dropped off after a first date with the Hilton man, David Pompalas, 32. She also said she was living at the motel with her three children.
"Basically [he] chased us down Empire Boulevard at a high rate of speed,” Madden said of her estranged husband--that was after she and Pompalas escaped the parking lot. “[He] hit the car once from behind and then hit it again, making it spin and run into the telephone pole."
The crash occurred at Kendrick Drive and Empire Boulevard in the Town of Penfield. Pompalas was taken to Strong Hospital by Mercy Flight and Sarah Madden was taken to Rochester General Hospital with minor injuries. Madden says both had to be cut out of the car by rescue workers.
Moses Madden fled but was later apprehended by police according to a Sheriff’s Office spokesman.
"He can be violent and he can be a stalker," Madden said of her husband. County records indicate multiple orders of protection issued by Madden against her husband with various violations pending. "I have called many times now to try to file complaints, we've been going to court now for eight months."
While Madden was at the hospital being treated for injuries to her left side as well as a concussion, she was confronted by Rochester City Police.
"When they were preparing my discharge papers the city police came in and said that they had run my name and there was a warrant for my arrest,” Madden said. “Apparently the warrant was based on the order of protection that he had filed against me."
Madden said it stems from a September 23 complaint filed by Moses Madden.
She said he claims she contacted him about getting some food for their children, but she denies that claim. She was taken by police from the hospital to the county jail for processing.
"I was put down there with a concussion, I threw up down there four times, could barely stand up," Madden said of her experience while waiting to be arraigned in front of a judge.
When 13WHAM News interviewed her she was still wearing jail-issued sneakers. She asked that 13WHAM News not show her face, and shortly after the interview she left the motel to move herself, and her children, to a safer place.
She said she hopes that by speaking out, the system will begin to help her and others like her.
"I really hope it does, and I hope this will help other people be able to make it through the system, because it's ridiculous,” Madden said. “The victim always has to fight too hard."
Moses Madden was arraigned in Penfield Town Court and is currently in jail on $25,000 cash bail, $50,000 bond.
