La Puente Mayor’s Spousal Abuse Case Ends in Mistrial

La Puente Mayor Louis R. Perez, hugging his wife, Anita, declared that he was vindicated Thursday after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in his trial on charges of spousal abuse.

Upon hearing the verdict, the 59-year-old mayor of the blue-collar San Gabriel Valley city smiled at his wife, who had steadfastly maintained throughout the three-day trial that her husband was innocent.

“The jury system worked well today. I think they did a fantastic job. This is a vindication,” Perez said. “What I went through is something no one as an elected official should go through,” Perez said.

Anita Perez, a Hacienda-La Puente school board member, wiped away tears and said, “I’m just happy it’s over. My husband was innocent and that’s why we knew we had to go to trial.”

Judge Keith Schwartz declared a mistrial after jurors said they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict after nearly two days of deliberation on the misdemeanor charges of corporal injury to a spouse and simple battery.

Jurors deadlocked 10-2 on a not guilty verdict on the spousal abuse charge and 9-3 on a not guilty verdict on the battery count.

After the announcement, Deputy Dist. Atty. Manuel Garcia said he will not seek to retry the case given the number of jurors favoring acquittal. He added that jurors told him they did not believe the law enforcement witnesses.

Garcia had maintained that Perez abused his wife during an argument, based on testimony by sheriff’s deputies of what they said Anita Perez told them and injuries they claimed they observed two days later when Anita Perez called 911 during another family dispute.

Several jurors said they believed Anita Perez’s testimony that her husband did not abuse her.

She defended Perez, saying sheriff’s deputies fabricated the allegations. She testified that the deputies misunderstood the situation when they responded to the Perez home Nov. 12. A bruise on her arm, she said, was caused when her husband grabbed her arm to break her fall after the two accidentally bumped into each other during an argument with their daughter two days earlier.

They rejected the prosecution version that Louis Perez shoved his wife during an argument and that Anita Perez told a detective that she had been abused.

Jurors said they believed Anita Perez and they viewed the testimony by sheriff’s deputies as contradictory. “There were too many holes in their case,” said one juror. “It was a waste of taxpayers’ money. The testimony did not make sense.”

Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Blanks told jurors that he saw Anita Perez outside the City of Industry sheriff’s station after her husband’s arrest and noticed red marks around her throat and scratches on her face. But Capt. Michael Nagaoka, who has known the Perezes for five years, said he spoke to Anita Perez earlier the same day and saw no marks on her throat, only red blotches that could have come from the hot shower she had just taken. Garcia said the prosecution’s case also may have been hampered by the judge’s decision to not allow into evidence a statement that Louis Perez made to sheriff’s deputies in which he said he had shoved his wife.