Police: Man Beat Wife Over Explicit Video Calls

SEPTEMBER 24--A Maryland man assaulted his wife after she FaceTimed him while having sex with another man inside a car parked outside a Best Western hotel in Pennsylvania, according to a felony complaint.

Upon receiving the video calls, cops say, William Atkinson, 34, asked a friend to drive him to the parking lot so they could confront the victim and her male companion. The duo, Atkinson told police, were “egging him on” during the FaceTime calls.

When Atkinson arrived at the parking lot in Somerset on September 21, he struck the other man, and “then this unknown male fled the scene,” according to a probable cause affidavit that answers few of the obvious questions raised by the incident.

Atkinson, seen above, then allegedly punched and kicked his 32-year-old spouse. The beating left the woman--whom Atkinson said was his wife of three years--severely bruised and bleeding heavily from her face, nose, and mouth.

While Atkinson claimed to have only hit the victim with an open hand, a witness reported seeing him “actively kicking" her in the face. Police seized Atkinson’s shoes, one of which was covered in blood.

Police did not obtain a statement from the victim, who was “extremely intoxicated” and uncooperative with officers.

The 911 caller who reported the assault told of hearing a gunshot, though “no witness saw who had a gun.” While a pistol was found in the van Atkinson traveled in, no magazine or rounds were in the 9mm firearm (and no “magazine or rounds or shell casings” were discovered). A knife and stun gun found at the scene belonged to his spouse, Atkinson told police.

Atkinson was charged with aggravated assault, a felony, and reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor. Atkinson, who is being held in the county jail in lieu of $30,000 bail, is scheduled for a September 28 preliminary hearing.

In 2016, the victim was arrested for attempted murder after an argument with her boyfriend ended in gunfire. The man was not hit when she fired a single shot inside a residence in Cumberland, Maryland. The woman subsequently pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment and was sentenced to two years of probation.

It is unclear whether Atkinson was the woman’s boyfriend at the time. Court filings in Atkinson’s case list his address as a private home in Cumberland, which is about 35 miles south of the Pennsylvania parking lot where he was apprehended. (2 pages)