By Emily Mieure

Jackson Hole Daily

Via Wyoming News Exchange

JACKSON — Mathew Seals, who is accused of abusing his ex-girlfriends, is facing a new felony charge ahead of his criminal trial that’s set to begin Monday in Teton County District Court.

Seals and his mother, Lori Seals, are charged with conspiracy to commit solicitation of a felony and solicitation to commit compounding after an attorney said Lori Seals offered his client (the victim in one of Seals’ assault cases) $50,000 to not testify against him.

In an affidavit filed May 28 in Teton County Circuit Court, police said Lori Seals called attorney Dick Mulligan on May 23 and offered to pay on behalf of her son, Mathew Cody Seals. Police were there when Mulligan returned her call. Lori Seals offered to pay the victim $416 per month after prosecutors dropped the case and her son was released.

“She’d have to go to the prosecutor and say she doesn’t want to pursue it and request they dismiss it,” Lori Seals reportedly told Mulligan over the phone. “And if they do dismiss it then he would agree to the offer, the money offer.”

Police served a search warrant the next day at Lori Seals’ house and seized her cellphone, which revealed text messages confirming the bribe.

Mathew Seals, 34, faces four counts of felony aggravated assault, five counts of domestic battery, two counts of battery on a household member, one count of property destruction and one count of strangulation, a felony.

The cases are being tried separately because there are two victims.

The alleged attack on the first victim who came forward happened Sept. 16, 2017, and resulted in the woman having to have surgery, police said.

When Seals bonded out of Teton County Jail, he took off with a new girlfriend to Massachusetts. Police said he was on the run for several weeks before he was arrested and extradited back to Wyoming on the original assault charges.

A second ex-girlfirend reported being attacked by him in 2013 because he was upset she was spending time with her family and not him.

The trials are set to start June 3 and 17. Seals is in custody at Teton County Jail awaiting trial and is set for an initial appearance on the conspiracy charge Friday afternoon in Teton County Circuit Court. Lori Seals was sent a summons to be in court June 6, according to court documents.