Man jailed for spousal sex assault

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Philip Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — A Texas man, who relocated here after marrying a Gallup woman less than two months ago, is in jail for allegedly raping his wife Saturday.

According to Detective Matt Wright, Gallup Police booked Daniel Lee Matthews, 30, at McKinley County Adult Detention Facility after an 11-hour investigation Saturday that uncovered enough evidence to support the accusation that he had raped and beaten his 29-year-old wife, whose name is not being released, in order to protect her privacy.

Wright said police responded to the rape and battery call at a house on the 1000 block of Buena Vista Avenue near Ford Canyon Park early Saturday morning. Matthews was charged with kidnapping, for holding his wife against her will; criminal sexual penetration, for raping her, and felony aggravated battery against a household member, a charge reserved for the most severe domestic violence.

All marital rape exemptions went extinct from New Mexico law in 1994, according to a pamphlet distributed by the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, based in Albuquerque.

Among all rapes reported in New Mexico during 2006, 13 percent involved a spouse, according to “Sex Crimes In New Mexico, 6th Edition,” an analysis of sex crimes distributed with funding by the U.S. Department of Justice.

“My suspicion is that people think they own their spouse,” Barbara Lambert, executive director of Battered Families Services, said Monday. She added that she believes, based on her experience with victims, that the information contained in the analysis is inaccurate.
“Statistics for this region are grossly underreported,” she said.