Anthony Of 'Opie And Anthony' Fame Was Arrested For Allegedly Beating Up A Girl 30 Years Younger Whom He Was Dating

Gawker – Anthony Cumia was arrested and charged this weekend with strangulation in the second degree, unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, assault in the third degree, and criminal mischief in the third and fourth degree. A woman, apparently Cumia’s girlfriend, uploaded a video of the incident to Periscope.

The video was streamed by Periscope user “DaniGolightly.” Dani Golightly is the daughter of comedian Vinnie Brand, who owns The Stress Factory comedy club in New Brunswick, New Jersey. In 2008, when she was 19, Golightly appeared on The Opie and Anthony Show.

“Hi, I’m in Long Island, I got my hand broken, I’m waiting for police to come,” the woman in the video says. “I tried to call the police, but he turned the phone off.” The video abruptly cuts away. “Oh my God, don’t hit me!” the woman yells. “Stay away from me!”

The Interrobang – Anthony Cumia’s attorney, Alan J. Schwartz, Esq. of Garden City, has released a statement responding to Cumia’s arrest Saturday morning.

“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.”

I used to enjoy Opie and Anthony quite a bit when I was younger and would sometimes still keep up with it until the show broke up a year or so ago when Anthony got in some altercation with a black lady and then tweeted out racially aggressive things to lose his half of the deal with SiriusXM. And while I’m not sure you can define being a shock joke radio host who used to get chicks to shove Wiffle Ball bats up their vaginas as “grace,” going from a career where people once thought you were the next Howard Stern to this seems like just about the biggest fall from grace as I can imagine. Losing your gig, getting arrested on a bunch of domestic violence charges, making radio show jokes and doing silly voices while chasing an unstable looking 20something girl around a house on a Periscope of her documenting alleged abuse are some awful looks. Even if the situation isn’t quite what it seems, that domestic violence Scarlet letter is one you don’t want. And it seems obvious that there was something screwed up was going on there regardless, even if he were to be fully exonerated, it’s hard to come out of this one and go back to being a beloved comedic personality.

Also, Opie and Anthony now hate each other and Opie has teared up on the show talking about their falling out several times:

And led to Opie and Jim Norton no longer being real-life friends and having incredibly awkward on-air exchanges like this on a few weeks ago:

Is it possible to retroactively unlike something now? I appreciate the hours of entertainment these guys gave me dating back to the late 90s (kill me) but this is cringe on top of cringe on top of cringe. This never would have happened if Patrice O’Neal were still alive.