Saratoga County deputies say a Greenfield man tried to run from them on foot after they responded to a domestic incident call on Ballston Avenue in Ballston just before 2 a.m. on October 31. Eric S. Johnson, 41, now faces a stack of felony and misdemeanor charges, including strangulation, after what authorities describe as a violent and chaotic scene that ended with his arrest and a trip to the hospital for the victim.
Deputies Describe a Pre-Dawn Call Gone Physical
According to the Saratoga County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to the domestic incident call at 1:47 a.m. on Ballston Avenue. Following an investigation, deputies arrested Johnson, who is from Greenfield. The Sheriff's Office said Johnson is accused of applying pressure to the victim's throat or neck with intent to impede their normal breathing or blood circulation, resulting in physical injury — the basis for a second-degree strangulation charge, a class D felony under New York law. That statute, as outlined by the New York State Senate, defines the offense as criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation that causes stupor, loss of consciousness, or other physical injury.
Deputies also accused Johnson of violating an order of protection by intentionally causing physical injury to the victim, and of committing a specified offense after having previously been convicted of a specified offense within the preceding five years. That allegation ties into the aggravated family offense charge, a class E felony. Per the New York State Senate's penal code, the person against whom a current specified offense is committed may differ from the person in the earlier specified offense, and the two need not be members of the same family or household.
Full List of Charges and the Attempted Flight
In total, Johnson was charged with strangulation in the second degree and aggravated criminal contempt, both class D felonies. He also faces aggravated family offense and criminal contempt in the first degree, both class E felonies, along with assault in the third degree and resisting arrest, both class A misdemeanors. Deputies said Johnson intentionally tried to prevent his own arrest by fleeing on foot and ignoring commands to stop before he was ultimately taken into custody.
The victim was taken by ambulance to Saratoga Hospital for evaluation and treatment of injuries described as apparently non-life-threatening. Johnson was arraigned in Ballston Town Court and remanded to the Saratoga County Jail pending further proceedings, the station's report notes.
Not an Isolated Case in Saratoga County
Johnson's arrest comes about a month after another strangulation case surfaced in the county: in late September, 29-year-old Alexander Bechand of Saratoga was arrested after a complaint investigation and charged with strangulation in the second degree and criminal mischief in the second degree, according to the same outlet's reporting on that incident. The two cases are separate, with no indication the men are connected, but both reflect how often strangulation allegations are turning up in the county's recent domestic violence arrests.
As for the specifics of Johnson's record, the evidence does not identify the prior conviction underlying the statutory allegations against him, nor does it indicate how the case will ultimately be resolved in court.
