A doctor has denied trying to kill his wife with a rock on a birthday vacation in Hawaii, with his lawyer claiming “there are two sides to every story”.
Gerhardt Konig pleaded not guilty during a court hearing on Monday, after he was accused of an attack on his nuclear engineer wife Arielle Konig.
"Dr. Konig's not guilty plea this morning was not just a formality, but a substantive response to the allegation that he tried to kill his wife," Konig’s lawyer Thomas Otake said in a statement, per Courthouse News Service.
"There are two sides to every story, and thus far only one side has been shared. The other side to this story will be shared within the court process at the appropriate time.”
Ms Konig, 36, alleges that when the pair were hiking along the Pali Puka Trail in Oahu last month her husband, 46, tried to lure her close by asking her to take a selfie with him, according to court documents seen by ABC News.
She claims that her husband began beating her head with a rock, 10 times, while grabbing the back of her head and pushing her face into the ground, as per the documents. A witness said she heard the woman screaming out for help, the court documents added.
The witness said the man stopped the attack as soon as he saw her, and she called 911, it is claimed.
The victim was left with multiple wounds to her face, and was hospitalized in a serious but stable condition, the court documents add. The couple had reportedly been on vacation to celebrate her birthday.
Ms Konig claimed in a subsequent statement, included in her petition for a restraining order, that the alleged attack was premeditated and came after years of emotional and physical abuse, per Courthouse News.
Her husband was arrested on March 24 and charged with second-degree attempted murder. His employer, the Anesthesia Medical Group, said he had since been suspended pending investigation, CBS News reports.
The Maui resident doctor formerly worked at UPMC in Pittsburgh, as an attending anesthesiologist at a women's hospital and an assistant professor of anesthesiology and bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Schools of Medicine and Engineering, according to the New York Post.
He remains in custody at the Oahu Community Correctional Center and a tentative trial date has been set for June 9.
