Mayor’s Wife Pleads Not Guilty to Charges of Child Molestation
The wife of Pasadena Mayor Chris Holden was charged Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court with several counts of unlawful sex acts with a teenage minor, the district attorney’s office said.
Michelle Elizabeth Holden, 35, who was indicted Thursday, pleaded not guilty to all charges. She remained free on $20,000 bail.
The mother of four was charged with six felonies involving a minor--one count of sexual intercourse, four counts of oral copulation and one count of a lewd act. She also was charged with two misdemeanor counts of “annoying or molesting a child.”
The alleged offenses were committed between Jan. 1 and March 15, according to the prosecution.
If convicted on all charges, Michelle Holden faces a maximum possible sentence of more than seven years in prison and two years in County Jail, said Dan Murphy, Pasadena’s head deputy district attorney. Convictions on some of the counts would mean she would have to submit to an AIDS test and register as a sex offender.
The purported victim was identified only as a boy under the age of 16.
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