The arraignment for Morgan Hill City Councilman Larry Carr on the charge of domestic battery has been postponed to Feb. 16 at the South County Courthouse, according to Santa Clara County Supervising Deputy District Attorney Vishal Bathija.
The hearing was originally scheduled for Jan. 26, but Carr’s attorney requested the rescheduling due to a prior commitment by Carr, and Bathija did not object to the request.
Carr, who has continued to attend city council meetings since his Nov. 25, 2017 arrest, and the rest of the council have a two-day annual “goal setting retreat” scheduled for Jan. 26 and 27.
Carr faces the misdemeanor domestic battery charge in relation to a Nov. 25 incident in which Morgan Hill police say he battered his girlfriend of 11 years at the home they shared in the city’s downtown. The alleged criminal contact occurred after the couple had returned home from spending the Thanksgiving holiday in southern California.
Carr and his girlfriend had been arguing about family matters since earlier in the day, according to the police report of the incident, which is on file at the Superior Court Clerk’s office.
After police responded to a call requesting a welfare check at the couple’s residence, officers separated Carr and his girlfriend to take statements from them independently.
Carr told the officers the only contact he made with his girlfriend during the argument was accidental, as he quickly moved his hands up to block a glass of water she was poised to launch toward him, the police report states. He specified that she only threw the water from the glass at him, but he “instinctively” thought she was going to project the vessel itself in his direction when he saw her pick it up and make a throwing gesture.
His girlfriend told police that Carr deliberately “ripped the glasses from her face and threw them to the ground, causing them to break,” and pulled her hair in the process, according to the police report. She also said when she was on the floor looking for her glasses, she pulled a chair out from the kitchen to facilitate her search. Moments later, Carr grabbed the chair and threw it down a flight of stairs, his girlfriend told police.
Carr told officers it was his girlfriend who threw the chair toward him, as he was walking down the stairs, according to the police report. He further said he used his arm to block the chair from hitting him. The police report does not say Carr showed any injuries.
The victim did not suffer any injuries or complaint of pain, police reported.
Although initial MHPD reports stated that the victim, Carr’s girlfriend, had called to report the disturbance, the detailed police report states it was her sister who called authorities. The report says Carr’s girlfriend called her sister during their argument, and told her that Carr “was threatening her, pulled her hair, took her glasses and broke them.” Carr’s girlfriend was aware that her sister had called police before they arrived to investigate the report Nov. 25.
The victim’s sister also told police that while she was on the phone with her sister during her argument with Carr, she heard him “yelling and screaming” in the background, according to the police report. The sister also told police that she was aware of four previous incidents of domestic violence between Carr and his girlfriend that were not reported to police.
After talking to both Carr and his girlfriend, officers determined Carr was “the primary aggressor.” He was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, and booked at Santa Clara County Jail.
Carr has continued to deny the charge of domestic battery, but has not returned recent phone calls requesting comment.
The city councilman was convicted of a similar misdemeanor charge in 2015, in relation to an incident at the couple’s previous home March 23. Carr pleaded no contest to domestic battery and completed a 16-week counseling program. The court later dismissed the charge from his record, at Carr’s formal request. Carr has also denied acting violently in that incident, and he pleaded no contest to avoid prolonged court proceedings.
In 1993, Carr was convicted of misdemeanor driving under the influence resulting in bodily injury in relation to a vehicle accident in which he and two occupants of the vehicle he hit were flown to a nearby hospital. In a Dec. 8 statement on Facebook, Carr called this a “young stupid mistake 25 years ago.”
