LIVERMORE FALLS – When police stopped a sport utility vehicle early Saturday after noticing dim headlights and broken taillights, the driver jumped from his seat onto a woman in the front passenger’s seat.

After investigating, police learned the vehicle had been in three accidents in Wales and Leeds.

When Livermore Falls officer Steve Gould approached the SUV on Route 17 near the intersection of Route 133, he said he noticed the vehicle had extensive damage.

Through interviews, Gould said, he found out the vehicle had been involved in three accidents. It hit a parked vehicle in Wales, clipped mirrors off another vehicle in Leeds and at some point in that town, went off the road and rolled over, Gould said.

Gould arrested Brian Woodbury, 25, of Sabattus, on charges of being a habitual offender, operating under the influence and violation of probation.

Woodbury’s girlfriend was the woman who had been in front seat, Gould said, and there was a female passenger in the back.

Woodbury had taken the women to his ex-girlfriend’s residence in Leeds, Gould said, to try to get his 2-year-old child despite a protection-from-abuse order against him. His ex-girlfriend wouldn’t turn the child over to him, the officer added.

“He was angry. He grabbed his (current) girlfriend by the throat and slammed her against the side of the car and started choking her,” Gould said, basing the information on interviews he conducted.

Gould said Woodbury had jumped out of the driver’s seat and onto the passenger, then tried to say he wasn’t driving, Gould said.

Woodbury was arrested and taken to Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn.

An ambulance responded to the location due to the alleged assault on his girlfriend but she declined to go to the hospital. Instead, she said she would go to the hospital on her own, Gould said.

Gould was helped in the case by officers Maurice Drouin and Jason Miller.

He said any charges stemming from the unreported accidents in Wales and Leeds or other incidents that happened elsewhere would be up to Maine State Police, who were notified of the investigation.