Of all the 3 a.m. phone calls former New York state governor David Patterson was trained to anticipate, the one about his stepdaughter knocking her boyfriend unconscious with a frying pan probably wasn't on the list.

But that's probably what happened in the wee hours of Saturday morning, when Patterson's wife's daughter, Ashley Dennis, 23, got into a violent fight with her boyfriend Brian McGuinness in his West Village apartment.

From the way police and neighbors describe it, this was no ordinary domestic scuffle. "There was blood on the floor, on the door handle, all over the hallway," the building superintendent told the New York Daily News. "I thought it was a murder."

"I heard a guy saying, 'Help me, help me,'" said a neighbor who called the police. "Then he started saying, 'Fire, fire,' to get someone's attention. I knew it was serious. He wasn't moving," she added. "He had two shoes on top of him like she kicked him out of the apartment and threw the shoes."

McGuinness told police Dennis hit him in the face with a frying pan, broke a bottle over his head, knocking him to the floor, and then repeatedly slammed his leg in the door until he lost consciousness, according to the criminal complaint.

Shockingly, a source from the police claims the couple didn't appear intoxicated.

McGuinness, a 30-year-old student at Ithaca College, received three stitches as a result of the assault. Though he may be out of physical danger, he's concerned he'll shoulder the blame for the altercation, not Dennis. “He [is] scared and worried . . . because of her family’s influence,” a police source said to the New York Post. “Like no one will listen to his side.”

Even the building superintendent appears to be siding with Dennis, insisting that "the man must have done something to provoke that reaction."

No word yet on how Patterson plans to handle his rowdy stepchild, but no doubt that his years in politics have prepared him to deal with unruly behavior.

(Photo: Jemal Countess/Getty Images)