The woman who was forcibly committed to a Pennsylvania mental hospital on allegedly bogus claims after being violently detained by her married cop ex-boyfriend sent him text messages threatening suicide just before the altercation, a criminal complaint shows.
Michelle Perfanov, 37, sent Officer Ronald K. Davis text messages on August 21 saying she was going to “go out in style” if he didn’t let her collect her belongings from him so she could move out of town.
“I think I’m going to drive of a cliff,” she wrote in one text, adding, “If this is where I’m supposed to die then so be it.”
“My mental health doesn’t matter I’m a useless old stupid uneducated piece of s**t,” she said in another.
“I don’t even have any clothes you help [sic] them hostage. Oh well I’ll just do it in style naked have a nice life.”
Davis, 37, a Pennsylvania state trooper stationed outside of Harrisburg, used those messages to secure an Involuntary Mental Health Commitment for Perfanov.
When his fellow officers couldn’t locate her, he reportedly said “I’ll take care of it myself” and drove to a picnic area at Greenland Tract State Forest where he found her.
There, an off-duty Davis violently grappled with Perfanov in a scrum caught on camera, before he finally restrained her as she pleaded to be let go, repeatedly said she couldn’t breathe, and insisted she had done nothing wrong.
“You’re insane,” she could be heard saying as he pinned her to the ground. “You’re absolutely insane… and then you paint me to look insane.”
When police finally arrived at the scene Perfanov was officially detained and brought to the Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill where she remained until she was released on August 25 after she was deemed not to be a threat to herself.
Despite the alarming nature of Perfanov’s text messages, prosecutors said Davis had not shared the full context of them when securing the involuntary commitment order.
“After reviewing the text messages, your affiants were not able to identify any suicidal or homicidal threats or ideations,” the criminal complaint from the Dauphin County District Attorney against Davis read.
The complaint characterized the texts as being nothing more than the product of a “domestic argument.”
After her release, Perfanov told police their fight had begun days earlier on August 19, after Davis locked her out of the trailer she was living in and prevented her from collecting her belongings from a storage unit.
She described a four-month relationship with Davis — who is married with a family — that had deteriorated over “ideological opinions and differences in roles within relationships,” according to the complaint, and even included threats from Davis to frame her as mentally unsound.
“I know you’re not crazy, I’ll paint you as crazy,” Perfanov said Davis told her, along with thinly veiled threats like “I know the law.”
Prosecutors said the text messages leading up to the supposed suicidal threats were characteristic of the behavior Perfanov said Davis exhibited towards her, which included disparaging remarks about her ability to get a job or leave town.
The suicidal texts were merely sent “to illicit a response or reaction from Davis,” the complaint read, adding Perfanov said “she never had intentions of committing suicide.”
At one point during their argument, Davis reportedly told Perfanov “you’re done. F**k around and find out.”
The police officer has since been charged with felony strangulation, unlawful restraint, and false imprisonment, among other charges.