Morgan Hill City Councilman Larry Carr’s pre-trial conference on a domestic battery charge was again delayed at a July 11 hearing, where the judge ordered him to be present at the next court date.
Carr, 49, is next scheduled to appear at the Morgan Hill Courthouse July 20.
He did not appear at the July 11 hearing, but was represented by attorney Robert Burch. At the brief proceeding, Burch filled in for Carr’s regular attorney, Stuart Kirchick, who has been involved in an unrelated “lengthy trial” in a different courtroom, Superior Court Judge Edward Lee noted in court July 11.
“We need to get this case going, but we need Mr. Kirchick,” said Lee, who also ordered Carr to be present at the July 20 hearing.
Since his first court appearance after authorities charged Carr with misdemeanor domestic battery, in relation to a Nov. 25, 2017 incident at his Morgan Hill home, he has not appeared at three of the five hearings scheduled thus far for the case, according to court records. An attorney has appeared on his behalf at the hearings he has missed, and represented him at the proceedings where Carr has been present.
Neither Carr nor Kirchick immediately responded to a phone call from the Times.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s charge against Carr stems from an incident involving his girlfriend of 11 years, with whom he shared a home in downtown Morgan Hill at the time.
Morgan Hill Police responded to the couple’s residence the evening of Nov. 25, and arrested Carr after taking statements from him and his girlfriend. The woman told police that Carr, during a lengthy verbal argument, “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 of the investigation.
Carr told police at the time that any contact he made with his girlfriend during the argument was accidental.
Carr—who is currently serving in his fifth term as a Morgan Hill councilmember—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 said he pleaded no contest to avoid prolonged court proceedings.
If Carr is convicted of the 2017 charge, the court can consider the 2015 conviction as a prior offense in his sentencing, according to authorities.
