A 31-year-old Brainerd man is facing criminal charges for allegedly choking a woman during an argument at a Brainerd residence.
Patrick John Majka was charged Dec. 6 in Crow Wing County District Court in Brainerd with felony domestic assault by strangulation and misdemeanor domestic assault to cause fear of immediate bodily harm.
According to the probable cause document filed in court, Brainerd police were called at 8:33 p.m. Dec. 5 to a report of a physical domestic assault at a Brainerd residence. The dispatcher advised police the reporting party is a neighbor who saw Majka and a woman push one another inside the kitchen. Officers responded and approached the residence when they heard a woman crying from the garage. The officer observed the woman crying hysterically, activated his body-worn camera and entered the residence.
One officer spoke to Majka in the living room area and the other officer spoke with the woman in a bedroom on the main floor of the residence. The woman was very visibly emotional, crying, and breathing extremely heavily, the complaint stated. The woman told the officer she and Majka got into an argument over an incident occurring earlier in the week and he yelled at her and pushed her in the shoulder while in the bedroom. When she tried to apologize, he again became upset, pushed her, turned her around and grabbed her by the neck from behind in a chokehold. Majka then spun the woman around so she was facing him, grabbed her throat with both of his hands and began strangling her. She stated both the chokehold and the stranglehold lasted about five seconds. The woman added she was able to bite one of Majka's hands while he was strangling her and he let go of her.
The woman said after she was free from Majka's stranglehold, he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to the ground. The woman then walked out of the residence and into the garage. She said Majka locked the door into the residence from the garage, so she walked around the townhouse complex to the front door and was able to get into the residence. The woman stated she and Majka began arguing again and he started knocking items off of a shelf, then threatening to tip the shelf over onto her.
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The woman said the situation calmed down for a short time but soon Majka began yelling at her again, then grabbed her leg and pinned her to the couch while yelling in her face.
Majka denied any physical altercation, but stated the woman pulled his beard. When the officer questioned Majka about the redness on the woman’s neck, throat and chest area, he offered the explanation the woman turns bright red when she is worked up, the complaint stated. Majka denied pulling the woman to the ground by her hair.
Majka admitted he wrapped the woman up at one point around her chest to stop the altercation. Majka also admitted he was bitten on the hand by the woman at some point. Majka did not know where the bite exactly was on his hands, but believed he was bitten on the right palm.
During Majka’s first appearance in court, the judge did not set any bond amount for Majka, as long as he followed the conditions to include no contact with victim, no possession of firearms or dangerous weapons and that he makes all future court appearances. A domestic abuse no contact order was filed and Majka was released. His next court hearing is Feb. 3.
