New Kensington woman released from jail accused of assaulting 2 teen boys

A New Kensington woman released from the Westmoreland County jail while awaiting trial in an assault case is accused of assaulting two teenage boys on Sunday.

Rita Marie Woody, 33, was released from the jail Oct. 4 after posting $10,000 bail, according to court records. New Kensington police charged her Sept. 28 with aggravated assault, saying she had hit a woman in the head and face with a liquor bottle in Parnassus Park.

New Kensington police said they were called to East Ken Manor around 5:15 p.m. Sunday after a 13-year-old boy went to a neighbor for help. The caller told a dispatcher that Woody had punched the boy in the face and choked him, according to a criminal complaint.

An officer said the boy had bruising and redness in the shape of two hands around his neck, a bloody nose and a red and swollen mark on his forehead, the complaint states.

Another boy, 14, said Woody also had punched him in the street, according to the complaint.

When police contacted Woody at her residence, she denied anything had happened and said, “I never put my hands on him,” the complaint states.

Woody resisted being arrested in her front doorway and, upon reaching a police car, “dead weighted” her body and lay on the ground, according to the complaint.

As she was being uncuffed in a cell at the police station, Woody pulled her right fist back with the handcuff still attached, as if she was about to punch the officer in the face, the complaint states. After officers held her down to remove the handcuff, Woody punched an officer twice in the chest as he was backing out of the cell, according to police.

Woody’s public defender in the earlier case, Wade Diedrich, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

New Kensington police charged Woody with felony counts of strangulation and aggravated assault and misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of children, simple assault and resisting arrest. She was arraigned Monday morning before New Kensington District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. and sent to the jail in lieu of another $10,000 bail.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 6.

In the September case, Woody waived a preliminary hearing before Pallone on Oct. 10 and is scheduled for a plea court hearing before Judge Scott O. Mears on Nov. 13.