A 63-year-old man accused of beating his new wife defended himself in District Court by saying that after 27 years of sleeping alone, he wasn't used to her waking him up.
"She woke me up out of my sleep and before I knew it, I poked her one," Frank VonRinteln told a Towson District Court judge. Mr. VonRinteln, a retired Marine from Idlewylde, said his wife should have known to be careful when awakening him because "I wake up very defensively."
But Judge Robert Dugan found him guilty of battery, sentencing him Thursday to three years of domestic violence and alcohol counseling. Mr. VonRinteln said he had been drinking at a party shortly before the Nov. 6 incident.
Regina VonRinteln told police her husband struck her on her arms, legs and in the chest. The two have been married since April.
"I am not a wife abuser; I don't consider myself one," Mr. VonRinteln told the judge.
"And I don't know how to defend myself against it."
Mr. VonRinteln, who acted as his own attorney, testified about other times that he had struck his wife -- an admission that would have not been allowed had the prosecutor asked him about it.
"I was half in the bag," he testified. "When I drink too much, the result is anger."
Regina VonRinteln had testified that she was driving them home from a Marine Corps party the night of the beating. When Mr. VonRinteln became belligerent, she put on the brakes and her husband, who said he was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown into the windshield and then onto the floor of the car. He apparently was dazed and when she tried to wake him, "he grabbed my face and socked me in my breast," she testified.
Later that night, Mr. VonRinteln battered his wife again in their home.
He said he hit her then because he was drunk.
"What I did was wrong, but not in the automobile," Mr. VonRinteln testified. "It was not my fault."
"You are a classic spousal abuser," Judge Dugan told him before sentencing.
"You attempt to give a thousand excuses, none of which are justified. You conduct was intolerable, and it was criminal act."