A pretrial conference is scheduled Oct. 26 in nation district court for Leo Watchman Jr., a New Mexico legislator charged with battery against his live-in girlfriend. The conference will determine if the case will go to trial, Pat Joe, court clerk in Window Rock, said Sept. 28. Marion Buck, Watchman’s girlfriend, accused him of grabbing her and throwing her at their Window Rock residence Sept. 22, tribal police said. She suffered a bruised and swollen wrist, a police complaint said. Watchman, 33, also is charged with two counts of interfering with judicial proceedings for violating a restraining order Buck had filed against him, court officials said. Watchman pleaded innocent to the battery charge Sept. 22 and has not entered pleas on the other charges, Joe said. He is free on his own recognizance. Buck said Watchman waited for her to return home and confronted her early in the morning, police said. When she tried to call authorities, he allegedly pulled the phone away from her and knocked it off the wall. She accused Watchman of grabbing her three or four more times and throwing her against a chair. Buck also told authorities she was in an abusive relationship with Watchman, the complaint said.
