PORT ANGELES — A man who beat his wife so severely that she had to have her spleen removed will spend 20 years in prison for domestic-violence offenses.
Dale Jackson Purser, 27, was convicted by a jury in Clallam County Superior Court on Aug. 30 of two counts of intimidating a witness and one count each of first-degree assault, harassment-threats to kill and second-degree assault-reckless infliction of substantially bodily harm and/or strangulation.
All five counts were listed as aggravated domestic-violence offenses stemming from an incident Sept. 23, 2011, that sent his wife, Jennifer Purser, into emergency surgery at Olympic Medical Center a day later.
Jennifer Purser has given the Peninsula Daily News permission to identify her by name.
At a sentencing hearing Tuesday, Superior Court Judge George L. Wood ordered Purser to 20 years in prison and 36 months of community custody, in which he will be allowed to return to the general population under intense supervision.
Becca Korby, executive director of domestic-violence-support nonprofit Healthy Families of Clallam County, said Wood told the court during sentencing that what Purser was convicted of is the worst case of domestic violence he has ever seen that did not end in a homicide.
“Jennifer is a walking miracle,” Korby said.
“She is an example of when the system works right, what happens.”
According to the probable-cause statement filed in the case, Port Angeles police were called at about 2:30 p.m. Sept. 23, 2011, to an Arco gas station on U.S. Highway 101 in eastern Port Angeles.
Upon arrival, Port Angeles Police Officer Lucas Degand found Jennifer Purser, who had called police from the gas station, crying and holding her side.
Degand wrote in the probable-cause statement that Jennifer Purser — who had a black eye, an abrasion on her ear and a red mark on her left side — was having a hard time standing due to the pain in her side and was complaining of dizziness.
Punched several times
Jennifer Purser told Degand that her husband had severely assaulted her at their home in Port Angeles, punching her several times to the head and on the left side of her body.
After reporting other instances of domestic violence, Jennifer purser was transported to Olympic Medical Center for her injuries, Degand wrote.
A day later, according to a supplemental probable-cause statement, Jennifer Purser returned to the emergency room complaining of extreme abdominal pain.
Jennifer Purser was taken into emergency surgery within an hour of arriving, during which her spleen was removed, Port Angeles Police Officer Kori Malone wrote.
“If [the victim] had not received treatment for her injury, she most likely would have died from internal bleeding,” Malone wrote in the document.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.