It is important to emphasize that there is no debate that 22-year-old Denetria Council was viciously assaulted. No one is questioning that she is a victim. But is Page the victimizer? He says no and adds that if you don't want to believe his words, at least consider hers.
The Investigators' Sarah Wallace: "You do acknowledge that someone savagely beat your ex-girlfriend?" Page: "I acknowledge that."
The evidence is undeniable. We visited 22-year-old Denetria Council in her hospital room two months ago, the day after police charged Page with multiple felonies, including unlawful imprisonment and kidnapping.
Council claimed Page kept her a virtual prisoner and beat her for nearly two weeks at the Brooklyn home the two shared with his daughter and niece.
Page: "She came home on the third of July beat up like that."
Sarah: "But it looks like those injuries were inflicted over time, not just one day."
Page: "It was one day."
In a lengthy jailhouse interview, Page claimed that his girlfriend admitted having an affair with another man named Johnathan, and that he was the one who beat her.
"I didn't do what happened to her," Page said.
Page scoffs at Council's claim that he held her against her will.
"If you was to interview people in my neighborhood, they'll tell you they see her every day," Page said. "Every day. She'll sit on the steps. She'll go to the park."
And there's more about the held captive claim. Page told us that three days before Council claims she broke free from him, he called 911 to report a previous problem that she had had with yet another man. The police department confirms that there was a 911 call and that cops responded, but no formal report was taken. Page asked if he were hiding her, why would he want police to come to the house?
"If I did any of this, that was her opportunity to tell them," he said. "The house was flooded with police."
Page admits he did hit Council once, when she admitted she'd slept with one of his friends.
"I slapped her, and I was like, 'Yo, leave my house, I don't want to be with you no more," he said.
He says he followed her to her mother's house, a short distance away, to try and talk.
"He jumped out of a car and started choking me," Council told us two months ago.
Page: "We got into a scuffle. I didn't choke her. I grabbed her by her shirt."
Sarah: "You smacked her in the face."
Page: "That's all I did."
Sarah: "You tried to choke her."
Page: "I didn't try to choke her. I know it looks bad. That's why I asked for this interview."
Page says if you don't want to believe his words, then believe hers. Council, who refused to do another interview with us on orders from the DA's office, admitted she visited Page at Rikers a month after his arrest and gave him a letter.
It read, "Jason Page did not kidnap me or hold me against my will, nor did he assault me in any way. The person who really assaulted me goes by the name of Johnathan."
Sarah: "She says she wrote that letter to just get you to leave her alone."
Page: "It's not like I opened the door to the jail and went to her house and said write me this letter. She came to see me."
And there's more. There are three-way phone conversations with a friend who recorded Council and Page, from jail.
Page: "Do you love that dude Johnathan?"
Council: "No."
Page: "Do you still want to be with me."
Council: "Yeah."
Page: "You coming to see me Saturday?"
Council: "Yes."
Page: "Make sure you call the DA and tell him the truth."
Council: "Yes."
"She's just playing a game with my life right now, with my freedom," Page said. "I just wish she'd tell the truth."
Page, who never flinched at a single question, did when asked about how he's been labeled, as a monster.
Sarah: "You are accused of some pretty heinous things here." Page: "I never did none of that to her, and she knows the truth. And I could spend the rest of my life in here."
Page is being held without bail. When asked if he would be willing to take a polygraph test, he responded, without hesitation, "Absolutely."
By the way, we have been unable to identify the Johnathan who Page's ex-girlfriend referred to or determine if he even really exists.
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STORY BY: Eyewitness News reporter Sarah Wallace
WEB PRODUCED BY: Bill King
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