It was about 8 a.m. on July 4 when the county’s 911 received a call on an open line, meaning that even though no one is talking directly to a dispatcher, the dispatcher can hear background noises. In this case, the dispatcher heard a woman crying, asking for help and “repeatedly requesting that someone respond to the residence,” it was stated in a Lycoming Regional police affidavit.

Upon arriving at the apartment at 2021 Misner Road in Old Lycoming Township, officers spoke with a woman, the suspected caller, who had “significant swelling above her left eye, which was heavily bruised as well as black and blue,” the court document stated. It is alleged that Blaine A. Cochran punched the woman in the eye as well as repeatedly struck her in the back of head during a domestic disturbance, police said. The woman told the officers she believed the 54-year-old Cochran was trying to break her neck while holding her head down, it was alleged.

“Tomorrow’s the day you’re going to die,” Cochran told the woman the day before, police alleged. He made the same threat on July 4 “before demanding that she do outside and mow the grass,” police said. When officers attempted to take him into custody, Cochran, who lived in the apartment, put up a struggle, forcing one of the officers to deploy his taser gun before he could be brought under control.

Arraigned before District Judge Aaron Biichle on charges of terroristic threats, simple assault, resisting arrest and harassment, Cochran remains locked up in the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail.