An Oak Harbor man is accused of choking his wife and restraining her from leaving after fighting about whether he should drink while watching Ultimate Fighting Championship, court documents show.
Erik Selvidge, 25, was ordered held in Island County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Island County Superior Court Judge Vickie Churchill ruled at a Nov. 18 hearing that there was probable cause to hold him on suspicion of kidnapping and assault.
Prosecutors charged Selvidge Nov. 20 with assault in the second degree and unlawful imprisonment in the second degree.
Police responded to a report of a domestic assault at Navy housing Nov. 11 after a neighbor saw a man, later identified as Selvidge, holding a woman on the ground, according to a report by Oak Harbor Police Officer Mike Clements.
The alleged victim later said she and her husband, Erik Selvidge, were arguing because she didn’t want him to go to a friend’s house to watch UFC. She told police that he drinks and becomes “very aggressive,” the report states.
She said Selvidge became upset by the way she was speaking to him, saying he is not a woman and “demanded respect as a man.”
He allegedly tackled her, choked her until she was “seeing stars,” the report says.
She tried to leave through the front door, but he slammed it shut and locked it. He threw her down and choked her again until she couldn’t breathe, the report states.
The woman was able to get out through the garage and ran down the block; she said she thought she was free until Selvidge tackled her in a neighbor’s yard, the officer wrote.
Selvidge allegedly choked her and told her “tap out for your life.” The woman said she couldn’t breathe and thought she was going to die. He released her after she tapped him on the shoulder, said the report.
Selvidge told the officer that they had been arguing and he didn’t want his wife to leave, but she “escaped” out of the garage; he admitted to tackling her in a neighbor’s yard and wrapping his arm around her neck, but he described it as “not necessarily a choke,” Clements wrote.
Court documents state that a breathalyzer showed Selvidge had a blood-alcohol level of 0.145 percent after he was arrested.
