Hearing Begins for Officer Accused of ‘Head-Butting’

A San Diego police officer used his head in an unprovoked attack to hit a man in a parking lot near Balboa Park, breaking the man’s nose, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing Tuesday.

The alleged victim and an Internal Affairs investigator gave accounts of the attack that at times conflicted but were largely similar at the hearing to determine whether Officer Michael A. Moller should stand trial on a felony charge of assault and battery by an officer.

Municipal Judge Lillian Y. Lim is expected to decide whether Moller should be remanded to Superior Court after hearing closing arguments from attorneys in the case this morning.

Michael Carvajal, 32, testified that Moller’s “forehead hit the bridge of my nose” during the incident early March 13.

Responding to questions from Deputy Dist. Atty. Luis Aragon, Carvajal said he was walking through a parking lot at 3rd Avenue and Elm Street when one of three police officers gathered there called him by name. Even though he was carrying an open container of beer, Carvajal said, he immediately turned and walked toward the trio.

“When I reached the officers, this man right here, Officer Moller, literally turned around and head-butted me in the nose,” Carvajal said.

After he was struck, Carvajal said, he realized his nose was broken, but Moller said nothing.

Under cross-examination by Everett Bobbitt, an attorney who specializes in defending police officers, Carvajal denied that he yelled a profanity at Moller. Carvajal said he knew Moller because he had seen the officer’s name tag before the attack, but he did not explain under what circumstances they had had contact.

Ted Mims, a detective in the Police Department’s Internal Affairs division, testified about interviews he later conducted with the two officers who were with Moller at the time of the incident.

According to the witnesses, Moller first struck Carvajal with his hand, then used his head to hit the man in the face, Mims testified.

According to Mims, both officers, Linda Keyser and Skip Melhorn, heard noises in the parking lot that attracted their attention. After stopping to investigate, Keyser heard Moller call Carvajal by name, Mims said.

“She saw what she thought was Officer Moller hitting Mr. Carvajal in the face,” Mims said, noting that Keyser said Moller hit him with his hand.

“The next thing she saw was Officer Moller head-butting, using his head . . . to hit Mr. Carvajal,” Mims testified.

Keyser added that “she did not see any threats or aggressive maneuvers against Officer Moller,” Mims said.

Although the secondhand accounts of the attack from the two officers supported Carvajal’s story, Carvajal made no mention of being hit twice. Additionally, Melhorn told investigators that Carvajal “got into (Moller’s) face,” but Carvajal testified that he said nothing.

Several fellow officers and Moller’s father, Police Capt. Kenneth Moller, sat in court during Tuesday’s hearing.

Moller, who has been reassigned to a desk job at the department’s Central Division, is free on his own recognizance. If he is ordered to stand trial and if he is convicted, he could receive a maximum sentence of three years in prison.