Anthony Cumia, the lowbrow radio personality who left “The Opie and Anthony Show” earlier this year after making “racially charged and hate-filled remarks” on Twitter, was arrested Saturday on charges of domestic violence. This time, a different social media app sealed his fate: His accuser livestreamed the apparent assault on Periscope.
Cumia’s alleged victim, a 26-year-old woman who goes by Dani Golightly, is the daughter of comedian and New Jersey comedy-club proprietor Vinnie Brand, Gawker reported. She’s also Cumia’s girlfriend — or was, before this incident — according to the New York Post. Cumia and Golightly have known one another since at least 2008, when she made an appearance on “Opie and Anthony.”
“That’s Vinnie’s daughter?” one of the hosts asked, “Why would he let her come here today?”
Guest Louis C.K. suggested that everyone was being nice, “but what’s hanging in the air is that everybody wants to fuck her tits into oblivion.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, after a round of applause. “It’s ‘The Opie and Anthony Show.’ What can I do?”
Seven years and change after her appearance at everyone’s favorite juvenile on-air frat party, Dani Golightly was all grown up and streaming on Periscope from Long Island, where she said Cumia had just broken her hand and bruised her.
“I’m waiting for police to come,” she said in the video. “I tried to call the police, but he turned the phone off.”
“Could you leave my house?” a man, allegedly Cumia, could be heard asking in the background. “I’m asking. I’ll pay to have you go back to New York.”
Then she turned the camera on Cumia, who played the whole thing off like it was a comedy bit as she backed away and yelled at him to stop coming toward her.
Cumia does not exactly have a reputation as a nice person with good impulse control. He spent hours tweeting racist obscenities about a woman who allegedly assaulted him while he was taking photos on the street. He also wished physical violence on the woman, saying he hoped she died, and that she was lucky he didn’t use the gun he had on him.
After the incident with Dani Golightly Saturday, he was charged with “strangulation, criminal mischief, unlawful imprisonment and assault.” He pleaded not guilty, according to TMZ, and his lawyer said in a statement that “things are not always what they appear to be and this is a perfect example of that.”
