Prosecutors charged celebrity chef Justin Sutherland Monday with threatening to commit a crime of violence against his girlfriend in St. Paul.

Sutherland’s girlfriend later told police that during an argument on Friday, he “grabbed her neck with both hands and squeezed for approximately five to six seconds,” according to a criminal complaint charging Sutherland with one felony. “While strangling her, Sutherland said, ‘I could kill you.’”

She called her sister and Sutherland ripped the phone from her hand and broke it on the counter, so the woman ran to a neighbor’s house to use the phone, the complaint said. When she walked back to the house, Sutherland was standing in the backdoor with a handgun pointed at her, made a comment about her “talking to their racist neighbors” and said, “Take two more steps. I dare you,” the complaint continued.

The woman said she slowly walked toward Sutherland because he still had the gun pointed at her, and he told her, “I’m not kidding. I’ll shoot you. This is my property,” according to the complaint. The woman said she knocked the gun from Sutherland’s hand and Sutherland’s friend came in the room, so she locked herself in the bathroom.

Police arrested Sutherland and an investigator went to talk to him at the Ramsey County jail. He asked what he was being charged with. He was told he was being held on threats of violence and assault. “Sutherland said that was a lie and requested a lawyer,” the complaint said.

Sutherland is making his first court appearance in the case on Monday morning. An attorney for him wasn’t immediately listed in the court file.

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