Burnsville Man Charged with Domestic Assault by Strangulation

A Burnsville man has been charged with attempting to strangle his girlfriend last weekend after she destroyed a cell phone given to him by another woman.

James Herbert Albien, 22, faces a felony charge of domestic assault by strangulation, which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint against Albien, police were called to an apartment in the 12500 block of Portland Avenue on Saturday on a report of a man beating a woman.

When officers arrived, the complaint says, Albien said, “I hit her. I lost it, and I hit her.” Police asked him to elaborate, and he told them that he hit the victim in the ribs and the head, the complaint says.

Albien said the cause of the argument was a cell phone given to him by a female friend. When he found out his girlfriend had broken it, he said he began hitting her.

Albien was taken to the Burnsville Police Department, where he told authorities that he had arrived home about 2:30 a.m. after spending the evening with his female friend. When he got home, his girlfriend told him that she wanted to break up, according to the complaint.

Albien told police that he grabbed a kitchen knife and went into the bathroom. When he came out, he asked his girlfriend where the cell phone was; she told him she had destroyed it, and he said he grabbed the victim by the neck, put his thumbs between her collarbones and pressed down, causing her to choke.

Police asked Albien if he thought the victim was having a hard time breathing during the incident; he replied, “Probably,” according to the complaint.

Albien told police that he threw the victim to the ground and punched her in the head and ribs, then grabbed her by her shirt collar and lifted her off the ground, at which point she pushed him away and called 911.

The victim told police that she and Albien had been having problems because of the female friend, whom Albien refused to stop contacting, and she acknowledged destroying the cell phone that the friend had given Albien.

She told police that Albien choked her three times during the fight, at one point lifting her completely off the floor.

An omnibus hearing in Albien’s case is scheduled for Oct. 10 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.