Anthony Cumia, Former Half of ‘Opie And Anthony,’ Arrested For Assault
Anthony Cumia, former host of the Opie and Anthony radio show and now host of the online program The Anthony Cumia Show has been arrested for domestic violence, KCCI (Des Moines) is reporting.
The 54-year-old Cumia, described by Breitbart as a “millionaire shock jock,” and 26-year-old Danielle Brand allegedly began arguing at his Roslyn Heights, Long Island home on Saturday night. At some point, their altercation turned physical. Brand began recording the aftermath of Cumia’s alleged assault using the social media app, Periscope. You can see Brand’s video below, but be warned, as this video contains strong language and content.
“Hi, I’m in Long Island, I got my hand broken, I’m waiting for police to come. I tried to call the police, but he turned the phone off.”
At one point, Cumia approaches Brand, and Brand can be heard screaming, “Oh my god, don’t hit me!” Cumia offers to pay for a car to take Brand home, but Brand responds, “I don’t need you to pay for a car, I need you to pay for my f***ing broken hand!”
Cumia, holding a beer, seems to be laughing off the incident, at one point chuckling and saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the Anthony and Dani Show!”
It is not clear, as of this writing, how Brand’s hand was broken or how she managed to get away from Cumia.
Brand, whom Cumia’s lawyer says is Cumia’s girlfriend and lives in his New York City apartment, alleges that Cumia strangled her and pinned her up against a wall; that he stomped on her hand; that he smashed her cell phone when she tried to call the police; and that Cumia ripped the phone out of the wall when she tried to call police on Cumia’s land line, according to The Daily Mail.
On Sunday, police arrested Cumia and charged him with assault, unlawful imprisonment, strangulation and criminal mischief. Brand, according to prosecutors, suffered a fractured rib, swollen arm and chest pain.
Former “Opie and Anthony” shock jock Anthony Cumia arrested for assault on Long Island – https://t.co/Ngdx1sF7ZU pic.twitter.com/EB9odrkmOx
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 20, 2015
In a statement, Cumia’s attorney, Alan J. Schwartz, denied the charges against his client.
“Mr. Cumia emphatically denies the allegations brought against him, and is optimistic that when the truth comes out, he will be exonerated. This morning, he entered a plea of not guilty to all charges and was released without bail, and directed to appear back in court in January. Simply put, things are not always what they appear to be, and this case is a perfect example of that.”
This is not Anthony Cumia’s first brush with controversy; in 2014, Cumia, at the time the co-host of Sirius/Xm’s The Opie & Anthony Show, was fired from the show after a series of racially-charged tweets.
The tweets appeared after Cumia was in New York, taking photographs when an unidentified African-American woman objected to being photographed. Cumia claimed the woman punched him and called him a “white motherf***er.”
In a series of tweets, since deleted, Cumia used profane and racist language to describe the event.
“Savage violent animal f***s prey on white people. Easy targets. This C*** has no clue how lucky she was. She belted me 10 times. I had a gun. She’s lucky I was a white legal gun owner or she’d be dead. Then 5 blacks started giving me s***!’ I hope a home boy beats her to death. They aren’t people.”
Sirius/XM fired Cumia for the tweets, and hired another personality in his place to co-host with Gregg “Opie” Hughes. Cumia went on to create his own web-based program, The Anthony Cumia Show.
[Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM]
