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Man Arrested, Accused of Breaking Pregnant Woman's Jaw in Road Rage Incident

Woman admits to pushing man, says he threatened her and spit in her face

The man accused of hitting a pregnant woman and breaking her jaw during a road rage incident in Dallas last week has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault causing bodily injury, police say.

The incident began when Niesha Woods was pulling away from her sister's apartment building on Aug. 22 and nearly struck a passing motorcycle rider. Woods said she didn't see the rider and didn't know she came close to hitting him until he threw an object at her car somewhere down the road.

The attorney representing a pregnant woman whose jaw was broken in a road rage confrontation spoke after the man who allegedly assaulted her was charged.

When Woods got out of the car to look for damage, she said the rider confronted her, used foul language, threatened to kill her and spit in her face. Woods told the man that she is 5 months pregnant and that her 11-year-old son was in the car in an attempt to bring calm to the situation, but she said the man said he didn't care.

"I told him if he touched me, he'd go to jail and he told me, 'Good luck with that,' Woods said.

Woods admitted she pushed the man away from her, after which she said he hit her in the face and broke her jaw in two places. Woods has since had surgery to repair the damage.

The man, identified by police as 35-year-old Fareed Hashim, was released at the scene without being placed under arrest or being cited in the alleged assault. Woods, however, was cited for misdemeanor assault based on witness testimony provided to police.

Dallas police have not said what changed in the case that led them to file a charge against Hashim.

Earlier this week Woods' attorney demanded that the conduct of the Dallas officer who cited his client be investigated, that her citation be dismissed and that "the man who assaulted Niesha be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Fareed was being held in the Dallas County Jail Thursday on $5,000 bond.

Woods' attorney, Justin Moore, said the bond amount applied to Fareed's case is "woefully deficient and not reflective of the level of violence he displayed that night."

"From the incident up until now, nobody actually believed Neisha, so she had to in a sense litigate this for herself and really persuade Addison and Dallas to let them know her two broken jaws were evidence," Moore said. "We want assurances from our law enforcement agencies that the women in the city are safe and what we have right now, we don’t have those assurances."

Moore now demands a higher bond and an ankle monitor for Fareed should he be released.

A spokesperson for the Addison Police Department says they have not received a formal complaint regarding Woods' case.

The Dallas Police Department released this statement to NBC 5 on Thursday evening:

"The initial patrol officers did a preliminary investigation at the scene. The officers cited probable cause and issued a class C misdemeanor citation for assault to Ms. Niesha Woods. After further review by detectives and based on the totality of the circumstances, an arrest warrant for the motorcyclist, Fareed Hashim, was obtained. He has been charged with penal code violation 22.02(A)(1) aggravated assault serious bodily injury. The investigation is on-going."

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