Man Arrested After Threatening to Burn Tax Documents

A Brooklyn Park man could face up to a year in jail for his part in a tiff over taxes. 

Ray Anthony Phillips, 27, has been charged with interfering with an emergency phone call, a gross misdemeanor, fourth-degree damage to property, and disorderly conduct after an incident on Feb. 6.

That afternoon, officers from the Burnsville Police Department were called to an address on Chowen Bend after receiving a report of a domestic dispute. The caller told dispatch that a small child had come to their door and told them that their father was hurting their mother. The reporting party could hear yelling and bumping noises coming from the residence.

Once on the scene, officers saw a woman leaving the apartment, yelling at someone inside. Phillips came out a few minutes later, yelling back.

The woman told police that the incident began in the kitchen, where she and Phillips, the father of her two children, were arguing about how they were going to handle their taxes. Phillips became enraged, grabbed her tax information and announced that he was going to burn it. She wrested the documents away from him and went to one of the bedrooms, in hopes of hiding them under a mattress. Phillips snatched them out from under the bed, and the two continued to struggle. Eventually, she was able grab the papers from Phillips and put them in her purse. Phillips and the woman then tussled over the purse, pushing each other around the apartment.

The argument escalated when she went into the living room and said she was going to call the police. As she picked up the phone, Phillips threw it on the ground, breaking it. The two ended up wrestling on the living room floor. The woman yelled for her child to get her cell phone. The child brought Phillips' cell, which he promptly threw into the hallway.

It was then that the child went next door to call 911.

Phillips allegedly admitted to throwing the phone against the wall. He has no prior criminal record of note.