La Puente Mayor Faces Trial in Domestic Abuse

In La Puente, Mayor Louis R. Perez and his wife, Anita, were seen as a small-town version of the high-powered Bob and Elizabeth Dole.

He is the mayor. She is a member of the school board. But that image is in serious jeopardy now as the mayor is going to court--on domestic violence charges.

The mayor says he is innocent. And now, so does his wife of 40 years. But the prosecution is proceeding anyway and the upcoming trial has become a hot topic in this tiny blue-collar city 12 miles east of Los Angeles.

“I didn’t do it,” said Perez, 58, a retired salesman and six-year council member. “The only way to clear my name is to go to trial.”

The mayor was arrested by sheriff’s deputies Nov. 12 when his wife called for help after an argument over their daughter’s puppy.

Anita Perez, 57, a Hacienda La Puente Unified School Board member, showed deputies some bruises on her arm and, according to the sheriff’s report, said: “Look what he did to me.”

Prosecutors say those bruises were the result of a physical confrontation two days earlier, and it is that incident for which Perez is going on trial.

But now Anita Perez is saying something completely different. “I’m shocked,” she said in a brief interview. “In 40 years of marriage, he’s never laid a hand on me.”

Since the arrest, it has been rough going for the mayor.

In November, some La Puente residents came to the City Council meeting and asked Perez to step down as mayor until the case is resolved. Perez declined.

Other residents worry that the case will sully the image of La Puente, where gang activity and crime are a part of the daily scene.

At the time of the mayor’s arrest, his 38-year-old daughter told deputies that she witnessed the attack on her mother. The daughter, Janettee, said that Perez grabbed her mother by the neck and then, as she tried to escape, also by the arm.

“Her neck was red, scratched and swollen,” said the sheriff’s deputies’ report of the incident. “The size and shape of the injury appeared . . . as if someone were choking her.”

When asked by a deputy who was responsible for the injury, Anita Perez said, “He did it,” indicating her husband, according to the report.

Perez maintains that he and his wife bumped into each other as he went to shut a door during an argument with their daughter over whether her chow puppy could live in the home. He said he grabbed his wife’s arm to catch her as she was falling. The mayor said his wife simply wanted deputies to mediate the dispute.

“She didn’t want me arrested,” Perez said.

Manual Garcia, a deputy district attorney with the family violence division who is prosecuting the case, said many victims refuse to testify against abusive spouses.

“It’s not unusual,” said Garcia. “Ninety-five percent of the victims are uncooperative in cases like this one.”

Still, Perez is confident about his trial. “I am sure I’ll convince a jury there is nothing to it,” he said.