ROCKWELL CITY — Heather Anderson, wife of Calhoun County’s ex-sheriff Scott Anderson, has filed a request asking the court to reconsider its decision on a no-contact order between the couple.

Scott Anderson was arrested April 11 on charges of domestic abuse assault and assault on persons of a certain occupation after officers say that he dragged her down the hallway, pinned her to a bed in their Manson home and held her by the neck as she gasped for air.

“Scott, stop,” she cried, gasping for air as officers came on the scene to find her husband refusing to let her go, according to the complaints.

The initial request to cancel the no-contact order, filed by Heather Anderson after her husband was arrested for assaulting both her and the arresting officers, was denied by Magistrate Court Judge Jessica Morton in an order issued April 26.

After taking testimony from Heather Anderson and supportive letters from family members, Morton expressed skepticism at the claims made in support of cancelling the no-contact order, which is typically issued until charges of domestic abuse are resolved.

Heather Anderson told the court that her husband “slipped up” the night of the arrest, having more than one drink after not having been intoxicated in over 25 years.

“(Heather Anderson said) Scott gets like this when he’s drinking, that he ‘gets mouthy,’ suggesting that this ‘slip up’ was not a one-time incident,” Morton said in her order, noting that the couple was only married for several months before the event.

“I couldn’t believe it when Heather Anderson said to me that (the night of the arrest) was a breeze compared to previous nights when Scott had been drinking,” said Deputy Kelly Moritz in an affidavit filed in support of the petition to remove the sheriff from office.

In written affidavits, eight officers responding to the domestic call that night described a tense and emotional scene laden with vulgarities from a belligerent Scott Anderson. It took multiple officers several minutes to carry him to a patrol car with a cage, where he was shackled in leg cuffs to prevent him from kicking out the windows.

“Neither Scott nor Heather seemed to grasp the seriousness of the incident,” the judge said, citing the potential danger to the six children and elderly woman in the home. “If true, the allegations in the complaint and the exhibits submitted by the State indicate that Scott’s actions have been threatening and erratic.”

In a personal letter to the court, Heather Anderson called her seven children from a previous marriage “my everything.”

An attorney for Heather Anderson filed a motion Monday asking the court to reconsider its initial denial of her cancellation request, asking that the court at least allow Scott and Heather Anderson the opportunity to speak over the phone to discuss critical decisions in their joint finances after the three-year sheriff resigned.

In a previous interview with The Messenger, Heather Anderson’s son, Dausin Olberding, said his stepfather did not allow his mother to take a job, despite job offers. She gradually stopped working over the course of last year after resigning from her county paramedic job and departing her eliminated position at Iowa Central Community College.

Heather Anderson’s letter detailed a few decisions she soon faces: which bills to pay, whether they should renew the lease on their home or whether they should move. Without Scott Anderson’s income, it’s unclear how the family will survive.

Scott Anderson was eligible for and received a court-appointed attorney toward the end of April after being suspended from his position as sheriff. His second application for one was approved after his first application, completed after his initial appearance in magistrate court, was rejected as illegible.

Calhoun County Supervisors accepted a resignation letter from Scott Anderson on April 27, just hours before a court hearing was scheduled to move forward on the Calhoun County Attorney’s petition to remove him from office.

The letter from the ex-sheriff’s wife was a more personal account detailing her background and relationship with Scott Anderson weeks after she posted a video to Facebook calling the criminal charges and sexual harassment claims a “witch hunt.”

Letters from Beverly Lamberti, Heather Anderson’s grandmother living at the Main Street home in Manson, and Brenda Schultz, Scott Anderson’s sister, attempted to act as character witnesses before Morton made her decision.

“This whole media has blown this way out of proportion,” Schultz wrote. “The media just thinks they can twist words and change the truth around. They need to be held accountable.”

“Open your eyes people,” she said in her handwritten letter to the court, saying she had never seen her brother hit anyone, “much less a women (sic).”

Schultz’s language mimics much of the language used in her sister-in-law’s social media video that called media coverage of her husband’s criminal charges and an imminent sexual harassment lawsuit against the county a coordinated smear campaign in an election year.

Heather Anderson has summarily denied all charges against her husband, saying she was never hurt. But in acknowledging parts of criminal complaints and refuting others alleged by law enforcement witnesses, Calhoun County Attorney Tina Meth-Farrington previously told The Messenger the mother of seven confirmed “much of what happened that night.”

With experience prosecuting crimes of domestic violence, Meth-Farrington recognized what she saw in the video as denial, minimization, deflection and manufacturing techniques commonly used by domestic abuse survivors, affirming that she believed Heather Anderson was a victim.

Meth-Farrington called Heather Anderson’s account of the night in question through the 11-minute video “an unfortunate after-effect of domestic violence.” An Assistant Attorney General has been appointed to prosecute the criminal charges against Scott Anderson, as requested by the county attorney.

Attorney filings say that Scott Anderson is now attending alcohol and anger management counseling.