Man deported after battering wife in Powell

POWELL (WNE) — A Mexican citizen who’d been living in Powell has been returned to his home country after he attacked his wife last month. 

Park County Attorney’s Office charged Francisco Robles Contreras, 48, with a felony count of strangulation of a household member in the wake of an altercation with his wife. However, the office quickly arranged a plea deal after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expressed an interest in deporting Contreras. 

At a May 15 hearing, prosecutors amended the strangulation charge to a misdemeanor count of domestic battery — to which Contreras pleaded guilty — and dropped a second misdemeanor count of interference with an emergency call. 

The defendant was then given credit for the 13 days he’d served in jail and his case was closed. 

The deal “would, I guess ‘free him up’ doesn’t seem to be the right term, but would free him up for deportation proceedings,” explained Contreras’ court-appointed attorney, Sarah Miles. 

Court records indicate that Contreras was in the United States on a work visa. 

Contreras’ wife called Powell police on the morning of May 3 reporting that, while drinking and arguing the previous night, Contreras hit her in the face several times and choked her for five to 10 seconds. 

Responding Powell Police Officer Nathan Bivens said he observed bruising on the woman’s face, neck and arm plus cuts on her chin and nose. The woman’s daughter said Contreras “had a history of domestic violence,” Bivens wrote in the affidavit, with the daughter reporting that Contreras assaulted her mother at least three times while they were living in Mexico. 

Given his imminent deportation, Contrera’s court costs were dismissed. 

ICE officials picked him up from the Park County Detention Center on May 16 — the day after his sentencing. As of Tuesday, ICE records showed he was being held at a contract detention center in the Denver area.

This story was published on June 5, 2025.