Palmer Domestic Violence Dispute Started Over a Bath

A domestic violence call started when a man did not give his 4-year-old son a bath.

It ended after the man had choked the boy’s mother to the point she had trouble breathing and the woman’s juvenile daughter had witnessed most of the incident, court records say.

Police entered a home Tuesday night on the 400 block of S. Nulton Avenue and had to break up the physical altercation between the woman and the suspect, Timothy Abiodun Adeleye, 49. The couple were in the basement.

According to a criminal complaint filed by township Officer John Charles Billiard:

• Police were dispatched at 10:43pm. The woman said the fight began over Adeleye not giving their son a bath.

• She said the man followed her into a bathroom, splashed water on her face, pushed her in the face, began kicking her and attempted to spit on her.

• She tried to get away but Adeleye “got in her face.” At this point, she told her daughter to get help. The girl went to a neighbor’s house and called 911.

• She said Adeleye, listed in the records as 6-feet tall and weighing 178 pounds, grabbed the woman’s left arm “hard enough to break it.” She again tried to get away but he twisted her left arm around her head and then wrapped his arm around her neck and began choking her to the point where she was having trouble breathing. The woman's height and weight are not listed.

• The daughter, meanwhile, told police what she saw and generally confirmed her mother’s account.

The records say Adeleye had a 1995 disorderly conduct arrest in New York and a 1999 credit card fraud arrest. The records do not say where that arrest occurred.

Adeleye was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and harassment.

He was arraigned early Wednesday by on-duty District Judge Douglas Schlegel of Wind Gap and committed to Northampton County Prison after failing to post $10,000 bail.