Editor’s note: This article may contain disturbing content not suitable for children and/or those who are survivors of sexual or domestic violence.

A River Falls woman fled her home after being choked and threatened with a knife, resulting in the arrest of her partner.

Nicholas Scott Ryan, 29, River Falls, posted a $30,000 signature bond Aug. 3 in Pierce County Circuit Court on felony first-degree recklessly endangering safety, felony intimidate victim/use or attempt force, felony strangulation and suffocation, battery, criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct charges, all with the domestic abuse and use of a dangerous weapon modifiers. If convicted, the maximum penalty is 12.5 years in prison and/or fines up to $25,000.

According to the complaint:

A woman came to the police station at 12:31 a.m. Aug. 2 to report her husband had been acting erratically since being prescribed Adderall two months ago. He had become convinced someone was hacking their cell phones, thinking it was his wife’s family. Over the course of a few weeks, his behavior had become more violent. He had taken her phone in order to track the “hacking activity” and had choked her. He had smashed devices in their home with a hammer. At around 5 p.m. Aug. 1, he choked her out and held a knife to her throat in front of their children. She lost consciousness for a couple of minutes and woke up on the floor.

She was able to message a friend to come pick her up, but had left the children with him. Her friend had also alerted her parents as to what was going on. She was worried if police responded to the residence, he would harm the kids, because he had said as much. She said he had been holding knives to her throat multiple times over the past few weeks and said he didn’t want to live in this type of world anymore. He also threatened to harm the children if police came to the door.

Police took photos of the woman’s injuries, which included rug burns, red marks and bruises all over her body. They came up with a plan to get Ryan to come out of the house so the children would be kept safe. The woman and her friend went back to the apartment, knowing Ryan would come outside when she returned home. When he came outside, police arrested him without incident. He denied holding a knife to the woman and said the bruises were because she bruises easily. He was transported to Pierce County Jail.

Ryan is scheduled to appear at a status conference at 1 p.m. Sept. 5.