A Meeteetse man was arrested Sunday on allegations that he choked his wife and put a knife to her neck.

Arthur W. Weisenberger, 63, is facing felony counts of aggravated assault and battery and strangulation of a household member, plus misdemeanor counts of false imprisonment and domestic battery. Prosecutors are also seeking to revoke the probation Weisenberger is serving for a May incident, in which he was also accused of pulling a knife. 

As of Wednesday, Weisenberger was being held in the Park County Detention Center, awaiting further proceedings in the two cases. Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah set bail at $25,000 cash.

Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Eichele had requested that bond amount, “given that Mr. Weisenberger was just placed on probation [in September], and given the severity of the charges and the fact that he’s … alleged to have recently moved here.”

Physical altercation

Charging documents say Weisenberger and his wife got into an argument on Saturday night that escalated into a physical altercation.

It reportedly started after they left a Meeteetse bar.

According to her account, she slapped Weisenberg in their truck and he backhanded her. When they returned to their room at the Oasis Motel, she said Weisenberger “held a knife to her throat and stated that if she ran to anyone that he would kill her,” according to a summary of her account.

The affidavit from Park County Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Aldrete also quotes the woman as saying Weisenberger pulled her hair and choked her, making it hard to breathe.

She said she got help when Weisenberger fell asleep; the sheriff’s office was called around 3:30 a.m.

When Aldrete arrived at the motel, he noticed that the woman had a swollen right eye that appeared black and blue and red marks on her left cheek. 

Deputies attempted to get Weisenberger to come out of the motel room, but he did not do so until 2:30 p.m., the charging documents say.

Weisenberger allegedly admitted he’d backhanded his wife and held her down by her hair, Aldrete wrote, but said he did so after she punched him in the face three times and clawed and screamed at him.

When Aldrete asked what else he should know about the incident, Weisenberger guessed that his wife “would have brought up something about a knife,” the deputy recounted, “but [he] denied any use of a knife.”

Probation from May

Court records show Weisenberger is serving unsupervised probation on a misdemeanor conviction of possessing a firearm in spite of a prior, nonviolent felony conviction. That case stems from a May disturbance in the Meeteetse area. Charging documents are vague on the details, but Weisenberger was accused of pulling a knife and another man was reported to have pulled a gun. Weisenberger wasn’t charged in connection with that altercation, but received a few other misdemeanor charges after Deputy David Schlenker found multiple firearms in his vehicle in spite of “previous nonviolent felony convictions.”

Weisenberg served 106 days in jail before taking a plea deal in September. He admitted to the illegal possession of the firearm and was placed on six months of unsupervised probation.

The county attorney’s office moved to revoke that probation in the wake of Sunday’s arrest. Weisenberger could face up to 74 days of jail time if he violated those terms.

He’s tentatively set to reappear in circuit court on both cases next week.