A city councilman in Michigan will stand trial on felony assault charges after his girlfriend testified Thursday that he punched her in the face multiple times and choked her in their apartment last month, leaving her with metal plates in her face.

The girlfriend of Jackson City Councilman Andrew Frounfelker, 41, detailed the alleged abuse she sustained on May 22 inside the apartment she shared with the lawmaker in downtown Jackson. She accused Frounfelker of dragging her up a set of stairs, pulling her by the hair, and punching her in the face at least five times with a closed fist before choking her against a wall in the kitchen, MLive.com reports.

The woman said she had trouble breathing during the alleged attack, which left her with five fractures around her nose and eye. Her injuries were still visible more than two weeks later, and one of her friends characterized her injuries as the “worst thing I have ever seen,” she testified.

The woman now has two metal plates in her face and claims the abuse had happened before. The emotional and graphic testimony convinced Jackson County District Judge R. Darryl Mazur to send Frounfelker to trial on charges of assault with intent to do great bodily harm.

The abuse was not a new occurrence, she testified, as she had just stopped wearing sunglasses to mask bruises she sustained previously. But hours before last month’s alleged attack, Frounfelker and the woman went out to eat at a restaurant one day ahead of her birthday on May 23. The city’s mayor and city manager were also there, she testified.

Frounfelker later got angry with her when leaving the restaurant, accusing her of  “disrespecting” him, she said.

“You have no idea what you did,” she recalled Frounfelker saying. “You disrespected me. I tried to do something nice for you.”

The woman testified Frounfelker then went to his car to get a tub of gifts for her birthday and then grabbed her by the hair while entering their apartment. Frounfelker then got even more physical with her, she testified.

“He kept hitting and I asked him to stop,” she said.

Frounfelker and his attorney, Alfred Brandt, declined to comment after Thursday’s emotional hearing. Brandt has said previously that Frounfelker denies the woman’s claims, MLive.com reports.

Kristin Willcut, a friend of Frounfelker’s girlfriend, also testified Thursday that she got a text message on May 22 saying that Frounfelker was acting unpredictably. Willcut later received a picture of the woman’s face that showed her crying on a bed with a “humongous” black eye, she said.

Willcut said she then headed to the apartment with her husband, calling Frounfelker’s girlfriend while on the way. Willcut said Frounfelker claimed “everything was fine” and told her to hang up the phone.

“I heard her choking,” Willcut said. “I heard her gasping for air. I heard her say, ‘Please stop’ multiple times. I heard her crying. And I heard him say I am going to kill you.”

A neighbor then let Willcut into the building, she said.

“And I can hear [Frounfelker] screaming down at her, ‘Tell her to go away, tell her you’re fine,’” Willcut testified. “’If you open that door, I’ll kill you.’”

Frounfelker has not commented publicly since his May 23 arrest, MLive.com reports. But Jackson Mayor Derek Dobies has hinted that Frounfelker will eventually resign, saying that the councilman told him he doesn’t want to be a distraction, WILX reports.

If convicted, Frounfelker faces up to 10 years in prison.