Deal Struck In Man's Salami Attack Arrest

MAY 8--A man arrested for striking his wife in the face with a piece of salami has completed an anger management course as part of an agreement with prosecutors who charged him with battery and resisting following a New Year’s Eve domestic fracas, records show.

Patrick Heilig, 57, was collared for striking the victim in the “left part of her cheek” with the thrown salami during a confrontation in the couple’s residence in The Villages retirement community in Florida.

Upon hitting her with the salami, Heilig yelled, “I threw it at you to get your attention,” according to an arrest report. The woman, 57, also told cops that Heilig had, a week earlier, shoved her while inside the home’s garage.

When deputies sought to question the 240-pound Heilig, “He was so belligerent I was not able to interview him about this incident,” a cop noted, adding that the suspect resisted getting into a squad car and “used his dead body weight and would not move.”

Heilig (seen above) was charged in a March 7 criminal information with three misdemeanors: resisting law enforcement without violence and a pair of battery counts (for the alleged salami and garage incidents).

In a deal with the State Attorney, Heilig just entered into a pre-trial intervention contract that could permanently defer prosecution if he abides by various conditions, including anger management, “peaceful contact with the victim,” the payment of court costs and fees, and refraining from “violation of any law.”

Heilig also had to pen a letter of apology to the deputy who responded to his home on New Year’s Eve. In that missive, Heilig blamed his sky-high blood pressure (241/228) for his bellicose behavior. “I’m back to my normal self, with a blood pressure 120/190. Sorry for the inconvenience,” he wrote.

It is unclear whether the high-sodium salami--which was not seized as evidence--played any role in Heilig’s professed blood pressure spike. (3 pages)