VAN NUYS : Man Sentenced in Spousal Battery Case

A Van Nuys man was sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to spousal battery, even though the only witness--his wife--had disappeared and could not be found to testify against him, the city attorney’s office said Friday.

Employing a 1987 state appeals court decision allowing police to testify as to statements made in their presence by a spousal battery victim, prosecutors planned to proceed with the case Thursday without the victim present.

Before the trial in Van Nuys Municipal Court could begin, however, Carl Gene Grissom, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of spousal battery, prosecutors said.

The city attorney’s office said Grissom’s wife disappeared shortly after he attacked her in their home Dec. 20, leaving a letter with her mother saying she was leaving the area and not telling anyone where she was going.

In addition to pleading guilty to the most recent case, Grissom admitted violating his probation from a series of other spousal battery convictions dating back to January, 1991, the city attorney’s office said.

Van Nuys Municipal Court Commissioner Rebecca Omens-Rochman sentenced Grissom to a year in jail and three years probation and ordered him to undergo a year of domestic violence counseling.