Police: Iowa City woman punched man, 9-year-old during assault

IOWA CITY - An Iowa City woman is accused of assaulting a man and his 9-year-old child during a drunken attack.

Officers were dispatched at 9:45 p.m. Friday to a home in the 900 block of Hudson Avenue, where a man told police that Virgie J. Cooks, 27, had come into his room and punched him several times in the face.

The man removed Cooks from his room, but she kicked his door down and continued to punch and scratch him, according to criminal complaints.

Cooks damaged another door, threw pots of cooled cooking oil at the man and punched the 9-year-old in the head. After the man managed to get her out of the residence, she punched and shattered a door window, the complaints said.

Officers found Cooks outside. An initial breath test showed her blood alcohol content to be 0.115 percent. She was taken to the hospital. After she was discharged two hours later, her blood alcohol content had climbed to 0.209 percent, police said.

Cooks was arrested and faces charges of assault causing bodily injury, fourth-degree criminal mischief, simple assault and public intoxication. She has since been released on her recognizance from the Johnson County Jail.

Comments: (319) 339-3155; lee.hermiston@thegazette.com