https://www.syracuse.com/crime/2015/09/months_before_womans_murder_jimmy_superfly_snuka_charged_with_assault_in_cny.html
SALINA, N.Y. – Four months before his mistress turned up dead in a Pennsylvania hotel room, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka was charged with assaulting her during a brawl at an Onondaga County motel.
Snuka, a former wrestling star, was charged Tuesday with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the May 1983 death of his mistress Nancy Argentino.
''But in mid-January 1983, in a Salina motel room, Snuka was charged with assaulting Argentino in a brawl that eventually included nine sheriff's deputies and two police dogs.''
Around 1:40 a.m. on Jan. 18, Onondaga County sheriff's deputies were called to the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge in the town of Salina to check on a report of a woman screaming, according to a front-page story in the Syracuse Herald-Journal. The deputies found Snuka naked and Argentino covered only by a sheet.
Argentino was shouting hysterically that she wanted to get away from Snuka.
She was forced back into the motel room she was sharing with Snuka, who at the time was 39 years old. Snuka closed the door and refused to talk to the deputies, but continued shouting angrily, the article said. Snuka remained uncooperative and Argentino continued screaming that she wanted to leave the room and get away from him. But he refused to let her leave or let deputies in.
The deputies at the motel called for backup and then forced the door open and tried to push back Snuka, who had positioned himself in the doorway.
According to the article, Snuka kept struggling and pushed a sergeant against the wall. Another deputy put him in a choke hold with his nightstick. It was only then that the sergeant was able to get a handcuff on Snuka's right wrist. It took several more minutes for nine deputies to get the handcuffs on his other wrist.
During the arrest Spirit, one of the police dogs, bit a deputy once and Snuka twice. Several deputies were treated for minor injuries.
Deputies at the time said Snuka had to be dragged to a patrol vehicle from his motel room in his underwear because he refused to put clothes on.
Argentino told deputies in a statement that she and Snuka had gotten back from a wrestling match in Elmira and that he became very angry when she failed to pay attention to him while he was talking to her about "the truth of God," as they watched television in their room.
Snuka was charged with third-degree assault, second-degree attempted assault, resisting arrest, and obstructing a governmental administration. He was ordered held at the county jail on $5,000 bail.
In April of that year, the Onondaga County District Attorney's Office dropped the charges against him, and in exchange, he pleaded guilty to harassment. He received a one-year conditional discharge in Salina Town Court. Snuka also chose to apologize to the sheriff's office and donated his $1,500 payment from a match in Syracuse to the Ronald McDonald House.