‘Drunk as a skunk’ sheriff’s officer punched wife: 9-1-1 call
HAMILTON >> The wife of a Mercer County Sheriff’s officer is heard breathing heavily at the beginning of a 9-1-1 call.
When the dispatcher asks the wife of Aaron Scolnick where her emergency is located, the woman responds with a bizarre answer.
“There is no emergency,” Scolnick’s wife is heard saying in the 9-1-1 call, obtained by through a public records request, before hanging up.
But the mother of Scolnick’s wife did not see it that way.
She also placed a 9-1-1 call expressing concern for her daughter’s safety after speaking with her.
“Her husband is a sheriff,” Scolnick’s mother-inlaw tells the dispatcher. “He’s drunk as can be, punched her in the chest. I don’t know if she fell down the stairs because of that.”
After she identifies Scolnick as the assailant, the worried mother says, “He’s drunk as a skunk.”
“I know he has a gun, but I don’t know if he pulled one out yet,” she says on the 9-1-1 call also obtained by noting the couple has a son and daughter. “I’m on my way over there.”
The dispatcher then instructs the mother to not enter the home.
“I don’t want you going there because that’s where we’re going,” the dispatcher says. “If you get there before we do, you can make it worse and I don’t want you to put yourself in any danger at all.” Scolnick, 38, of the first block of Blue Devil Lane in Hamilton, was arrested on Nov. 26 for “recklessly causing bodily injury” to an adult female at his home, assistant Mercer County Prosecutor Kathleen Petrucci previously told
He was charged with simple assault, a disorderly persons offense.
Prosecutors did not indicate the victim was Scolnick’s wife, but the 9-1-1 tapes reveal that she was on the receiving end of the reported beating.
Scolnick, who has since been suspended as a sheriff’s officer following his arrest, was also charged with possession of an assault firearm, possession of a large capacity ammunition magazine and possession of a switchblade knife as a result of the attack, authorities said.
Prosectors indicated the possession charges, which are second-and fourth-degree offenses, stem from the weapons that were seized from the home by Hamilton police for “safekeeping.”
Following his arrest, Scolnick’s wife called
classifying the story of her husband as “distasteful.”
“We have a family,” Scolnick’s wife said last month. “This isn’t just affecting him. It’s affecting his family and I’m really unhappy with this.”
When asked if she wanted to share her side of the story, Scolnick’s wife declined, stating “it’s nobody’s business.”
“I’m definitely not telling my side to you,” she said. “Well, maybe you should think of the people’s families before you go making freaking headlines.”
Scolnick, who formerly served in the Army National Guard, spent two tours in Iraq as a helicopter gunner. He joined the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office in 2008 following his graduation from police academy.
The sheriff’s officer was paid more than $96,000 by Mercer County last year, according to records obtained by
Scolnick’s case was transferred to Burlington County at the end of last month.