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Around 12:15 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 5, authorities received a call from a woman who said that she had been assaulted at the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, located in the towns of Lewisboro and Pound Ridge.
According to Westchester County Police Public Information Officer Kieran O'Leary, the woman told authorities that she had been walking on a trail in the reservation when an unleashed dog ran up behind her.
She then told the dog's owners that it needed to be on a leash, sparking an argument that led to a physical altercation.
During this altercation, 57-year-old New Rochelle resident Dawn Reich allegedly struck the woman in the head, knocking her down and giving her a cut.
Reich's husband, 66-year-old New Rochelle resident Steven Reich, then allegedly broke the victim's cell phone by smashing it against a rock, O'Leary said.
The victim was later helped by two other park visitors who found her bleeding from a head wound on the reservation's Brown Trail. Although they did not see the incident, the two park patrons gave the victim a cell phone so she could call the police.
The victim, a woman in her 50s from Ridgefield in northern Fairfield County, was treated at the scene by Lewisboro Volunteer Ambulance Corps and then taken to Northern Westchester Hospital Center.
Both Dawn and Steven Reich were later arrested and charged with third-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal mischief, respectively. They were both booked at County Police headquarters in Hawthorne and released. They will appear in Pound Ridge Town Court on Monday, Nov. 20.
Ward Pound Ridge Reservation is Westchester County’s largest park. The 4,700-acre terrain ranges from deep hollows to ridges 800 feet high.
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