Woman who claimed hospital ban charged with battering her same-sex partner

What started as a woman’s claim that she was fighting against same-sex discrimination took a turn Wednesday after she was accused of attacking and assaulting her partner.

Sarah Bray, who last week said she had been banned from visiting her same-sex partner in an Indianapolis hospital, is now charged with battery and criminal confinement. The charges came after her live-in partner, Jennifer Clemmer, told investigators that Bray assaulted her after an argument about housecleaning, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The revelation came when detectives interviewed Clemmer late Saturday — four days after the alleged assault and only hours after nurses removed a ventilator from her mouth — in the critical care unit at Franciscan St. Francis Health-Indianapolis.

The incident began when Clemmer said she left their Southside house on Nov. 12 after the argument with Bray. While gone, Clemmer said she received text messages from Bray threatening to call police and tell them she overdosed on drugs if Clemmer didn’t return home quickly, according to court documents. When Clemmer returned home at about 10:30 p.m., she said Bray was sitting on the living-room couch with her sons.

“The boys were instructed not to say anything about what is going to happen,” Bray told Clemmer, according to documents.

That’s when Bray allegedly lunged at Clemmer.

Clemmer said Bray dragged her to the ground by her shirt, struck her about five times in the head and neck with a closed fist, grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face into the wood floor, according to documents. The boys witnessed the attack, the affidavit said.

During the incident, Bray said, “So you always want to be the victim, do ya? ... You don’t know abuse, I’ve endured abuse my whole life,” Clemmer told investigators, documents said.

Clemmer said she ran toward the bathroom and took six muscle relaxers she had in her pocket to help relieve the pain, according to documents. She collapsed halfway to the bathroom, however, and later woke up in a hospital bed. Documents said Clemmer had scratches and bruises all over her body. She was unable to speak until the ventilator was removed.

Last Wednesday, Bray told The Indianapolis Star that Clemmer’s mother banned her from visiting her partner because she was opposed to their relationship, and Bray also claimed the hospital upheld that ban. Hospital officials said the next day that Bray had never been prohibited from visiting Clemmer.

Bray, 34, also painted a different picture as to why her partner was in the hospital.

Bray told The Star that she had injured her hand and went to the hospital around 1 a.m. She said she then received a call around 6 a.m. from one of her sons saying that Clemmer was face down on the bathroom floor and unresponsive. Bray said she called 911 on the way home from the hospital.

Clemmer, according to Bray, overdosed on several medications after a suicide attempt. She said she was able to visit her partner in the hospital for only about an hour, until her partner’s mother, Mary Clemmer, arrived and ordered her and her sons out.

In an interview with The Star, Bray said she would fight for her rights to visit her partner.

“I’m praying to God that she (Jennifer Clemmer) opens her eyes,” Bray said at the time, “and that she gives some sign of something.”

Bray also said that she and and her partner bought wedding rings the day before the hospital visit, and were planning to marry in Iowa next month.

“She is an amazing mother to those two boys,” Bray said. “And I just want to be able to know that I can be with the person I love more than anything.”

But Jennifer Clemmer’s statements as well as witnesses’ statements to detectives portrayed a more tumultuous relationship.

Mary Clemmer, Jennifer’s mother, told detectives that Bray was manipulative and was pulling her daughter away from her family, documents said. Several months ago, she said, her daughter stopped coming over regularly to her house.

This wasn’t the first time Bray allegedly claimed her partner had overdosed in a suicide attempt.

Sometime in the past few months, when Jennifer Clemmer went to her mother’s house and fell asleep, Bray sent paramedics to Mary Clemmer’s house and told them her partner was inside and had overdosed after trying to commit suicide, the affadavit said. Paramedics left after Jennifer Clemmer denied any suicidal tendencies.

At the hospital on Nov. 12, Mary Clemmer said the first thing Bray told her was that she and her daughter were not arguing or fighting, documents said.

Mary Clemmer did not return a call from The Star seeking comment.

Bray was arrested Tuesday afternoon and is being held at Marion County Jail on an $11,000 bond. She will appear in court at 8:30 a.m. today. She has yet to grant an interview request from The Star after her arrest.

Joe Stuteville, a spokesman for Franciscan St. Francis Health, declined to comment about the charges against Bray.

David Stevens, director of GetEqual Indiana, who contacted the media last week after seeing a post by Bray on Facebook, said his organization is no longer concerned about discrimination against her. Stevens said he thought Bray’s complaint seemed urgent at the time.

“We did the best we could with the information we had,” he said. “We had a limited amount of time. She was acting like her partner was dying. I don’t have any way of telling if somebody’s telling me the truth or not.”

Call Star reporter Kristine Guerra at (317) 444-6209. Follow her on Twitter: @kristine_guerra.