Charles Peralta, 29, and Nicole Agriesti, 21, of Morgan Hill
appeared before Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Kenneth
Shapero Monday morning and waived a formal reading of the charges
against them, entering pleas of not guilty.
Morgan Hill – Charles Peralta, 29, and Nicole Agriesti, 21, of Morgan Hill appeared before Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Shapero Monday morning and waived a formal reading of the charges against them, entering pleas of not guilty.
Peralta and Agriesti are charged with assault causing bodily injury with a special hate crime attachment. Both are free on $100,000 bail.
A tentative pre-trial date of April 24 was set.
On March 24, Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hood wound up the preliminary hearing to determine if there was sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Susan Bernardini ruled their was, on both charges.
Peralta and Agriesti are accused of assaulting a Morgan Hill woman in the parking lot of the Cochrane Village apartments on July 21, 2005, after allegedly running over a bag of groceries. She asked them to pay for the groceries, she told police, and the alleged assault began. She was hospitalized twice when her doctor feared she might lose the baby, but the baby, a girl, was later born premature. Attorneys for the defense say the woman, Xochitl Calderon, was the instigator and Peralta and Agriesti were trying to defend themselves, in Agriesti’s case, or to break up the fight, in Peralta’s case.
