Paul Simon and wife Edie Brickell have been arrested on disorderly conduct charges by officers investigating a family dispute at their Connecticut home.

Yesterday, the celebrity couple held hands in a Connecticut court and claimed they did not feel threatened by one other.

Simon told a Norwalk Superior Court judge he had a rare argument with his wife on Saturday night at their home in New Canaan.

The arrest struck a discordant note for the couple. Simon burst onto the national stage with former partner Art Garfunkel in the 1960s, adding a gentle voice to the growing chorus of opposition to the Vietnam War. Brickell, meanwhile, gained fame for her songs that blend rock, folk, blues and jazz.

A caller from the singers’ home had dallied emergency services and hung up, police chief Leon Krolikowski said at a news conference on Monday.

Officers who responded found minor injuries and believed it was a case of domestic violence, he said.

Simon and Brickell, who have been married for more than two decades, were each given a misdemeanour summons and one of them agreed to leave and go to another location, Krolikowski said.

“There was aggressiveness on both sides,” he said.

“They’re both victims and they have children involved and we’re trying to be very cautious of that.”

A lawyer representing the couple, Allan Cramer, said the incident was very minor, though there was a slight shove. He didn’t say who did the shoving.

“They are here together, they get along fine with each other,” Cramer told reporters before the hearing.

“If it were Joe Blow we wouldn’t be here. You certainly wouldn’t be here. These people have had a wonderful life together and they’ve never had these types of problems.”

At Monday’s hearing, Simon and Brickell each said the other was not a threat. Judge William J. Wenzel said he did not see a need for a protective order.

“We’re going to go back home today. We’re going to watch our son play baseball,” Simon said.

Simon, 72, and Brickell, 47, were asked to return to court on May 16.