By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 30-year-old Cushing man accused of choking his girlfriend at their residence has been jailed on $30,000 bail pending an April 5 court appearance at which he can seek a preliminary hearing on the felony charge.
If convicted of domestic assault and battery by strangulation, Ronald James Knickerbocker could be imprisoned for one to three years and fined as much as $3,000, court records show.
When Knickerbocker’s girlfriend was interviewed at the Cushing hospital on Feb. 23, she said she was taking a nap at the couple’s residence when he woke her and they argued about some of their dogs, Cushing Police Officer David Smith wrote in an affidavit.
She said that Knickerbocker dragged her around the house by her hair and repeatedly hit her in the head and face, the affidavit alleged. She said “at one point Ronald had both hands around her neck and was on top of her while she was on the floor,” the affidavit alleged.
She also said Knickerbocker had physically assaulted her the night before, the affidavit alleged.
She had a red bloodshot eye, swelling around her right eye, bruising on her hands, and also red marks from the middle of her neck and toward her right side, the affidavit alleged.
She said “she did attempt to hit at Ronald in self-defense and even threw a shoe at him, but was unable to get away from him,” until she contacted his relative to separate them, the affidavit alleged. Knickerbocker’s relative took her to her mother’s house where she called police, the affidavit alleged. She said she wanted to press charges against Knickerbocker, the affidavit said.
Five months earlier, Knickerbocker had allegedly attacked the same woman by throwing her on a bed and grabbing her by her neck, according to another domestic violence charge.
In that incident, Cushing Police Officer Alex Gegen was sent on Sept. 14, 2020, to the couple’s residence — where police had been sent earlier in the day regarding a disturbance between them, an affidavit alleged.
“Knickerbocker went to a friend’s house, which was located across the alleyway from his residence prior to officers’ arrival,” the affidavit alleged.
While Officer Gegen was on the way to the couple’s residence, Officer Smith arrived and said Knickerbocker “had fled on foot prior to his arrival and possibly went to his friend’s house again,” but police found that he was not there, the affidavit alleged.
Knickerbocker’s girlfriend said that he came back from the first incident that occurred earlier, the affidavit alleged.
“She advised Knickerbocker stated, ‘I’m sorry you can’t talk to me right.’ She said she replied, ‘I’m sorry you can’t talk to me right either,"” the affidavit alleged.
She said Knickerbocker took a shower and then they began to argue, the affidavit alleged.
“She said she told him that she was going to call the cops, and then he got even more mad and came into her room where she was gathering belongings. She said he got into her face and pushed her onto the bed, grabbed her neck, and choked her a little,” the affidavit alleged.
She said “she began to kick him and he may have struck her in the face,” where her left cheek had a red mark, the affidavit alleged.
“Officer Reynolds, who was also on scene during the first incident, advised (she) did not have the mark on her cheek during that time,” the affidavit alleged.
Knickerbocker’s girlfriend said that after Knickerbocker left, one of his relatives “overheard the incident and called the cops,” the affidavit alleged.
If convicted of that Sept. 14, 2020, misdemeanor domestic assault and battery charge on which he is also due to appear in court on April 5, Knickerbocker could be given as much as a one-year jail term and a $5,000 fine, court records show.
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