When pictures started circulating in early November of QAnon supporters crowding Dallas’s Dealy Plaza, where John F. Kennedy was assassinated, in anticipation of the second coming of the slain president and the arrival of John F. Kennedy Jr., his dead son, it became a political Twitter joke.

Now, some three weeks later, some middle-aged and boomer QAnon followers are still there, and the incident has more clearly shifted from a laugh to something enduring and darker. While the event’s organizer, Michael Brian Protzman, and his followers have so far only been disruptive, Mother Jones has learned that he has previously faced formal allegations of violence, as documented in a 2019 arrest on an “unlawful imprisonment – domestic violence” charge.

According to court records from Washington state’s King County obtained and provided to Mother Jones by Amanda Moore, an independent researcher focused on the right, in July 2019, Protzman allegedly “held [his wife] down on the bed, using both of his hands to physically restrain her, using one of his legs to brace hers,” and “held her in this position for approximately two to three minutes until she told him that she would agree to marriage counseling so he would let her up.” When she then tried to leave the house, the documents say, Protzman grabbed her and prevented her from departing. She ultimately made it to a neighbor’s home, barefoot, where she called 911 and said that “she is scared of Michael because he has ‘blind rage’ and she believes he may hit her.” According to a police report, she complained that Protzman had recently “been acting differently, not showering or working and believing in government conspiracies.” She also claimed Protzman had assaulted her before, strangling her roughly six years earlier.