Sheriff’s Office: In-car domestic violence leads to wreck in Bluffton

Domestic violence was the alleged cause of a single-car accident in Bluffton last weekend.

William Dupont, a 22-year-old Ridgeland man, was arrested Dec. 30 after he “ran off the roadway into the treeline” near the intersection of May River Road and Rose Dhu Drive while allegedly in the process of “strik(ing his girlfriend) repeatedly in the face,” according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report released Monday.

An argument preceded the the violence and the crash, according to the report.

Dupont’s girlfriend told deputies that the two were visiting Bluffton on her day off from work “to spend quality time together,” the report said.

But during the trip from Ridgeland, she “received a phone call for her job asking (her) to come in and work on her day off,” according to the report.

Apparently enraged that their day-trip would have to be rescheduled, Dupont cursed at his girlfriend and began hitting her around “the left side of her forehead,” the report said.

After the crash, deputies examined the victim and “observed a golf ball sized lump” in that location of her head, according to the report

While Dupont denied laying a hand on his girlfriend during the argument when initially questioned, the report says he eventually told deputies “he pushed her with his right hand while driving.”

Dupont was arrested on domestic violence charges and booked at the Beaufort County Detention Center, where the county’s online jail log indicates he was released Dec. 31.

This story was originally published January 3, 2017 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Sheriff’s Office: In-car domestic violence leads to wreck in Bluffton."