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James is enrolled in a novel court-ordered therapy program that aims to reduce domestic violence. He accepted a diversion deal that will wipe his record clean if he successfully completes two years of probation in June. Image by Karen Pulfer Focht/Special to the Daily Memphian.
When police showed up at their door at midnight, it marked a terrible end to a lousy day. The married couple had started fighting that morning, over their daughter’s birthday party, and by evening, a mundane argument over who would cook dinner exploded.
According to arrest records, the wife said her husband followed her into the bedroom and “grabbed her with one hand around her neck and began choking her.’’ He tells a different story: He only grabbed his childhood sweetheart by the wrists. Theirs was simply a verbal altercation, he said.