Anthony Cumia, Of ‘Opie And Anthony’ Show, Arrested For Allegedly Beating And Strangling Girlfriend [Video]

Anthony Cumia, the co-host of the formerly popular show Opie and Anthony, was arrested Saturday.

In the Roslyn Heights neighborhood of Long Island, New York, 54-year-old Anthony Cumia allegedly had an altercation with a younger woman. The woman, 26-year-old Dani Golightly, live-streamed from the house and a recording was posted on YouTube.

[Warning: Video may involve strong language and situations too offensive for some viewers.]

In the video, posted by YouTube user Jude Miller, viewers see Golightly showing her swollen hand to the camera as well as several bruises on her leg and torso. She insists there are other bruises that cannot be shown on camera.

The video also shows Anthony Cumia drinking and laughing, offering to pay Golightly to get out of his house. In one part, it seems as though Cumia is attempting to run after the woman, but in the next part, he’s asking her if she would be interested in some karaoke.

Many people viewing the video found the scene to be too bizarre to be believed, while others compared it to The Shining (1980) and found it more on the terrifying side.

According to CBS, the police arrived at the house to find Anthony Cumia strangling the woman. A statement made by the producers of The Anthony Cumia Show indicates that Golightly was Cumia’s girlfriend.

“We consider this to be a private matter between Mr. Cumia and his significant other,” the producers told the Blaze.

A spokesman for the police told Newsday that Anthony “got into an argument with an individual that stemmed into this physical violence. That’s as far as we’re going to discuss this at this time.”

Early Sunday, Anthony Cumia was arraigned in Hempstead court and pleaded “not guilty” to the charges.

He is being charged with several crimes including strangulation, unlawful imprisonment, and assault.

After his plea, Cumia’s girlfriend was issued a full stay away order of protection that, if broken, could land Cumia in jail. He was then let out on bail, but is due back to court on January 4.

Anthony Cumia is being represented by Alan Schwartz.

Schwartz responded to the accusations by insisting upon his client’s innocence and stating that things were not as they seemed on the video.

“Mr. Cumia emphatically denies the allegations brought against him, and is optimistic that when the truth comes out, he will be exonerated. Simply put, things are not always what they appear to be, and this case is a perfect example of that.”

[Video might be offensive to some viewers.]

The Boston radio station that was home to Opie and Anthony fired the pair in 1998 over a couple of incidents — one where they hosted an April Fool’s joke claiming that the mayor had died in an accident, and the other where they instigated a contest that led to a couple having sex in New York’s St. Patrick Cathedral.

From there, the show moved to SiriusXM, where the shock-jock team kept Opie and Anthony going.

In 2014, Anthony Cumia claimed there had been an incident in Times Square where a black woman punched him several times because he took a photo with her in it. He proceeded to take to Twitter, where he went on a rant about the woman and the situation in general.

SiriusXM immediately fired Cumia, stating that his social media rant was “racially-charged” and “hate-filled.” They added that “those remarks and postings are abhorrent to SiriusXM, and his behavior is wholly inconsistent with what SiriusXM represents.”

In the summer following his termination from Opie and Anthony, Cumia began the online paid subscription show he is currently working on, The Anthony Cumia Show.

[Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM]