A parolee is back in jail after punching a man who was a Tinder date for his girlfriend’s friend, according to a court affidavit.
Matthew Rue, 35, is being held in Douglas County Jail on $250,000 bail, facing a maximum of 50 years in prison on a first-degree assault charge.
Rue had been released on parole in March 2016 after serving about 10 months at the Community Corrections Center in Omaha, a work-release facility. Before that, he had been in prison since 2002 after being convicted of eight charges, including first-degree assault, firearm use and escape.
Authorities said Rue punched Rusty Derochie multiple times in the early morning hours of Jan. 6 in the parking lot of Foxboro Apartments near 156th and Harrison Streets.
Derochie told Omaha police he had planned to meet “Kristy,” a woman he met on the Tinder dating app. A man punched Derochie in the face once, then the back of the head four times and stomped on his lower back two times, according to a court affidavit.
Derochie suffered a pelvis fracture and a head injury.
Officers spoke to “Kristy,” who said Rue, her friend’s boyfriend, punched Derochie because he was jealous that Derochie was meeting them.
Rue’s girlfriend, whom he had been dating for six months, told police that she had been joking around with Derochie. Then Derochie pushed her “in a nonviolent, playful manner,” and Rue became very angry.
In 2002, Rue escaped from the Douglas County Jail by switching his ID wristband with his cellmate’s. A woman posted the cellmate’s $500 bail, allowing Rue to go free. He was captured a few days later.
Rue is set to have his next court hearing in February.
