Man charged with choking pregnant woman

A Springfield man was ordered held without bail this week after allegedly choking a pregnant woman to the brink of unconsciousness.

www.rutlandherald.com    

Published June 13, 2016 in the Rutland Herald Man charged with choking pregnant woman By Eric Francis WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Springfield man was ordered held without bail this week after allegedly choking a pregnant woman to the brink of unconsciousness. Joshua VanHise, 24, pleaded innocent to felony first degree aggravated domestic assault and to an accompanying misdemeanor charge of interference with access to emergency services. Police said VanHise confessed to grabbing a woman by the throat and to throwing her cellphone into a toilet to prevent her from calling police. Springfield Police Officer Ryan Prince said when he located VanHise Tuesday evening, VanHise told him, “It’s crazy females. That’s all it is,” before adding, “All I did was grab her by the throat ... to keep her still.” Prince said that VanHise showed him bite marks on his right hand and on his chest near his left shoulder along with a number of scratches on the back of his neck. VanHise’s mother, Jennifer Rea, arrived on the scene a short time later and told police that VanHise had called her during the altercation and that she could hear the woman punching him, according to affidavits. “She got the phone and was actually calling the cops so I grabbed the phone and threw it in the toilet,” Prince quoted VanHise as telling police. When the woman was interviewed a short time later at the Springfield police station, Prince noted she was shaking and crying and had scrape marks on her hand as well as red and purple marks on both sides of her neck and that “her voice was hoarse and she appeared to be in pain.” The woman told police they initially argued over VanHise “driving like an idiot” and almost crashing into a McDonald’s drive-through and escalated until he pushed her. “(S)o she pushed him back and at this point he grabbed her by the hair and threw her on the ground,” according to the affidavit. “(H)e knocked her head on the floor ... sat on her chest and put his weight on her while he began to choke her with his two hands around her throat.” Police described the woman as 12 weeks pregnant and said she believed she may have lost consciousness, biting and trying to scratch at VanHise as he choked her. She rated her pain as 8 out of 10, police said. During VanHise’s arraignment his public defender, Elizabeth Kruska, said that VanHise, who graduated from Windsor High School in 2010 and has worked as a plumber in recent years, was not a flight risk and she pointed out to Judge Theresa DiMauro that “Josh is also covered with scratches and bruises and bite marks.” Windsor County State’s Attorney David Cahill countered that, “strangulation was not a reasonable response in self-defense to any action that (the woman) may have made.” DiMauro agreed with the state, saying that while there was some disagreement about who started the fight, the accounts given by both of how the woman sustained her injuries were “strikingly similar,” adding, “We’ll leave self-defense (claims) to a trial.” DiMauro said she was holding VanHise without bail because of the risk he posed to public safety, and specifically the woman, saying there is “certainly a reasonable argument (that can be made) that his response to being slapped in the face was excessive.” VanHise faces a maximum of up to 16 years in prison. http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20160613/NEWS02/160619837