Man Gets 6 Months in Jail in Abuse Case : Courts: North Hollywood resident also ordered to get counseling for the beating of his wife and infant daughter.

A North Hollywood man was sentenced Friday to six months in jail and ordered to undergo a year of counseling for alcohol abuse and domestic violence after pleading no contest to beating his wife as she clutched their infant daughter.

The charges stem from a Feb. 2 incident in which Michael Joseph Cassady, 32, repeatedly beat his 22-year-old wife and also struck their 11-month-old child, according to Deputy City Atty. George Schell, who prosecuted the case. Schell said that Cassady and his wife had argued earlier that morning over family finances, and he became angry when she returned home from shopping.

When Cassady began shouting, his wife gathered their two daughters--a 4-year-old and the 11-month-old--and attempted to leave.

Cassady first blocked her exit, and then began striking her, the prosecutor said, hitting her at least five times in the face with a closed fist. One of the blows glanced off her head and struck the infant on the left side of the face, Schell said.

Cassady’s wife called police and he was taken into custody. Cassady’s wife and infant daughter were taken to North Hollywood Medical Center, where they were treated for cuts and bruises.

In addition to the jail time and required counseling, Van Nuys Municipal Judge Gregg Marcus ordered Cassady to pay $910 in fines and court costs and placed him on three years of supervised probation.

Cassady’s was the third Van Nuys Municipal Court case in about a week involving domestic violence.

On May 15, Calvin Holt, 29, of North Hills, was sentenced to a year in jail after he pleaded no contest to telephoning his former girlfriend--a 26-year-old woman from North Hills--and threatening to kill her after their two-month relationship ended. According to prosecutors, Holt has a history of violent criminal offenses, including spousal battery, assault with a deadly weapon and disturbing the peace.

On May 12, Jason Kane Green, 23, of Wilmington, was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading no contest to charges that he attacked a former girlfriend at her Van Nuys home in February, 1994, after she ended their three-year relationship.

According to authorities, Green punched the 25-year-old woman in the face, choked her and then, in view of neighbors, stabbed her in the left thigh with a small knife. Prosecutors went forward with the case even though the woman moved out of the state and was not available to testify against him.