Sutanto, Carpenter win assault trial

Owen Sutanto won a trial on July 11, 2025, in Clark County District Court for a client accused of hitting a woman at a wedding reception.

Sutanto was assisted by Madyson Carpenter during the two-day trial, and the jury deliberated less than an hour before returning the not-guilty verdict.

The client, 65, and the alleged victim, 54, were both guests at an outdoor wedding reception in June 2024 in Battle Ground. Several bands played at the reception. The client played in one band, and the alleged victim’s husband played in another. The client and the alleged victim did not know each other. During her husband’s set, the alleged victim noticed the client adjusting equipment on stage. She confronted him and what happened next depended on who you asked.

The woman called 911 after the reception and told a deputy from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office that she’d been assaulted by a man she did not know. She said there were several witnesses. She also claimed the man ripped off her jewelry.

The client, who had left the venue by the time the incident was reported, told deputies that he’d been the band coordinator at the wedding reception, and it was his equipment on stage. He said a woman came up to him and attacked him and they ended up on the ground after she pushed him and he tripped over a chair.

He was charged with fourth-degree assault. He was also charged with malicious mischief in the third degree for breaking her jewelry, but that charge was dismissed pretrial for lack of evidence.

While the woman claimed there were several witnesses to the assault, unfortunately for the prosecutor none of them at trial could corroborate the woman’s version of events. People said they saw a man and a woman wrestling on the ground, but nobody could say how the altercation started. And nobody could hear what words may have been exchanged due to the loud music.

As Sutanto pointed out at trial, the alleged victim’s story changed every time she told it. She used different words to describe how she was hit, from “slapped” to “punched” to “backhanded.” She also changed the amount of alcohol she consumed at the reception each time she was questioned.

She claimed she suffered a concussion and aggravated an old jaw injury but submitted medical bills to the prosecutor’s office that predated the reception.

The woman said there was a small mark near her ear from being hit, but in photographs the “mark” was indistinguishable from other small clusters of freckles on her face so there wasn’t even proof of an injury.