“The estranged wife of Republican Senate candidate Sean Parnell testified under oath Monday that he choked her until she bit him to escape, that he hit their children and verbally lashed out at her with obscenities,” reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“In tears, Laurie Parnell said that her husband, endorsed by former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania’s Republican Senate primary, called her a ‘whore’ and a ‘piece of shit’ while pinning her down. She testified that after a Thanksgiving trip he once forced her out of their vehicle alongside a highway after raging at her, telling her to ‘go get an abortion.’ Parnell’s web site describes him as a pro-life candidate. Laurie Parnell also testified that Sean once slapped one of their children hard enough to leave fingerprint-shaped welts through the back of the child’s T-shirt. She spoke in a court hearing over custody of their three school-age children, describing years of intense rage and abuse that she said she endured from her husband. At one time, she testified, ‘He tried to choke me out on a couch and I literally had to bite him’ to get free. ‘He was strangling me.’ Parnell denied the claims and insisted that he looks forward to a future court date where he’ll be able to tell his side of the story.”