During an altercation Sunday afternoon with his girlfriend at his home, James M. Confer “grabbed the woman by her neck and began choking her to the point that she was unable to breathe. He then slammed her up against the wall repeatedly before she was forced” to go from the first floor to the second floor,” it was alleged in a city police affidavit. “You can’t leave, and you can’t call the police,” Confer, 47, of 1012 Almond St., was alleged to have told her. Eventually, the woman “was able to get past him and flee the apartment with her dog,” police said. Confer was arraigned hours later before District Judge Christian Frey on charges of strangulation, recklessly endangering another person, false imprisonment, simple assault and harassment, and committed to the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail.

In another case, state troopers were dispatched to a home in the 1500 block of John Brady Drive in Muncy Creek Township about 6:30 a.m. on Jan. 16 when a police dispatcher could hear on an open emergency telephone line a man and a woman screaming, according to an affidavit. Upon arriving at the home, Paul Temple admitted that he and his girlfriend had been “in a small scuffle,” the court document stated. There were “visible strangulation marks on the woman’s neck. She also had a bloody lip and tongue” police said. The woman said Temple, 35, of 162 Stahlnecker Road, Muncy, began “throwing stuff around the house and then put her in chokehold, impeding her breathing for about a minute,” police said, adding that the victim bit her lip and tongue while in the chokehold. The woman said she feared “Temple may kill her,” police said. Charged with strangulation, simple assault and harassment, Temple has waived his preliminary hearing before District Judge Kirsten Gardner, and remains jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail.