A U.K. citizen faces assault charges for allegedly using a belt to strangle his pregnant wife and drag her around their Boothbay Harbor apartment last December.
A May 6 indictment charges Mark A. Jolleys, 33, with Class B aggravated assault, a felony; and Class D domestic violence assault, a misdemeanor.
Jolleys and his wife were living in a Boothbay Harbor apartment after their September 2013 wedding. The couple was having an argument, and the woman was in the process of moving out the night of Dec. 26, 2013, according to a victim statement by the woman.
Jolleys allegedly told the woman “‘You can leave now, or I’m going to kill you. It’s your choice,'” she said. He first tried to strangle her with his hands, then covered her nose and mouth. “I was panicking because I needed air and could not breathe,” she said.
Later, Jolleys allegedly removed the woman’s belt and wrapped it around her neck. “He tightened it as tight as it would go,” she said. “I kept clawing my fingers to protect my neck.”
“I finally got the belt off my neck,” she said, when he tightened it around her arm. “He dragged me around the room, from the bed to the floor and to the front door,” she said.
“I was screaming so loud that I think it scared him and he let me out of the belt,” she said. She fled the apartment and ran to an apartment next door, where she called the police.
Officer Fred Hutchings, of the Boothbay Harbor Police Department, responded and interviewed the couple. The woman’s lips were blue, her neck was red, and she had bruises on her arm, Hutchings said in his report.
Hutchings arrested Jolleys at 1 a.m. the next day. Jolleys would remain at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset until a friend posted $10,000 cash bail Jan. 23. He now resides with the friend in Wiscasset, according to court documents.
The alleged victim has since recanted, according to a motion by Jolleys’ attorney, Lisa Whittier. The woman told Boothbay Harbor police officers she fabricated the incident to get Jolleys out of the house, Whittier said. She now wants to reconcile with her husband.
Jolleys’ bail conditions place him under house arrest from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and require him to check in with the Wiscasset Police Department three times a week. He surrendered his passport upon his release.
The conditions prohibit contact with the victim, prohibit the possession or use of alcoholic beverages or illegal drugs, and require Jolleys to submit to random search and testing.
Whittier did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
