A 35-year-old North Whidbey man is accused of choking his girlfriend during an argument that turned physical Jan. 9, court documents state.

Prosecutors charged James Randall in Island County Superior Court Jan. 13 with second-degree assault, domestic violence. He pleaded not guilty Feb. 1.

Randall and the alleged victim gave contradictory accounts of what lead up to the alleged strangulation assault, the police record indicates.

Deputy Matt Mishler with the Island County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Boe Road home in the afternoon after the victim’s mother reported an assault had taken place. The alleged victim had fled, but he was able to contact her later.

The woman said that Randall and she had been arguing before the assault occurred. She said that he had followed her around the house, grabbing her by the throat several times, and pushed her into a door, breaking the glass. She said he also slammed her into a wall and a bird cage, the report states.

The woman claimed that Randall pinned her to the floor and choked her with both hands around her neck, Mishler wrote. She said her 8-year-old daughter witnessed much of the assault.

Randall, on the other hand, claimed that the woman first attacked him, and she followed him around the house while she was swinging at him, so he “grabbed her by the neck to keep her off of him,” the report states.

“Randall also made the statement that he knew he was wrong and should not have grabbed her by the neck,” the deputy wrote.