Police Say Whitehall Man Hit Wife at Casino

When Bethlehem police arrived in the lobby of the around 2:30 am Sunday, they saw a woman sitting in a chair holding an icepack to the back of her head. The icepack had blood on it, as did her hands and shirt.

She told police she hit her head on the vanity in her hotel room. As she talked to the police, she also talked to someone by phone. “I’m telling them I fell. I’m not telling them that you hit me.”

The person on the other end was her husband, James Michael Potocnie, 55, of Whitehall.

When police finally talked to the husband, he was “visibly intoxicated” with red, bloodshot eyes and an unsteady gait, according to court records. He repeatedly said, “I didn’t do anything. I didn’t hit her. She beats me up.”

Nonetheless, police charged Potocnie with simple assault and harassment. His wife, Erica, suffered a one-inch laceration to the back of her head and was taken to for treatment.

Potocnie told police his wife came into their hotel room on the eighth floor when he was lying in bed. She climbed into bed and started “acting stupid,” he said. He pushed her out of the bed and hit her, he said. He also said she struck her head on the center nightstand.

Police noted, however, that Potocnie “changed his story several times,” the records say.

Potocnie, of 4283 Abigail Lane, was arraigned later Sunday by on-duty District Judge Jackie Taschner of Palmer Township and released on $25,000 unsecured bail.