By Brian Hews
Cerritos Mayor Pro Tem Bruce Barrows appeared before the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in Bellflower last Friday for an Office Hearing regarding allegations of criminal misconduct of Penal Code 242 Battery against resident Jay Gray, Los Cerritos Community Newspaper can confirm.
Barrows and Gray both attended, at separate times, the formal hearing at 10:30 a.m. before Hearing Officer A. Knight in a 3rd Floor Hearing Room at the Flower Street facility for the District Attorney’s Office.
Gray confirmed that both he and Barrows attended the dual sessions, but did not elaborate on specific details.
Both Barrows and Gray were directed to appear at the hearing to determine if a formal criminal complaint and charges are to be filed against suspect Barrows.
Barrows was accused of grabbing Gray after a city council budget session back on June 5 outside the city council chambers. “Barrows grabbed me, and threw me, and yanked at my jacket and neck tie,” Gray told LCCN after the incident took place. Gray caught Barrow’s ire after he made public comments about various city priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. Gray in turn was accused of Disturbing the Peace by Barrows.
Barrows attended the meeting with an attorney, LCCN was told, and Gray attended the meeting without legal representation.
Both were mandated to bring a copy of the formal complaint notice, and any documents, pictures or witnesses that were “deemed” necessary to assist the District Attorney in reaching a determination on the case that was filed by members of the Cerritos Sheriff’s Department. Barrows’ complaint against Gray was dismissed.
Sandi Gibbons, spokesperson for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office would not comment on the specifics of the Barrows hearing on Monday afternoon. “We don’t comment about what takes place in Office Hearings,” Gibbons said. “We can say that normally in cases such as this, the suspect involved is usually mandated to a program such as community service work, or other programs such as anger management,” she said.
“Hearings like this are to resolve disputes,” Gibbons said. She also confirmed that in Office Hearing matters, the suspect “must do what is required by the hearing officer in an allotted amount of time, or if they fail to do so, the criminal case will continue through the legal system.”
According to the police report, obtained and published by Los Cerritos Community Newspaper, Barrows said that during an argument with Gray outside Chambers, he got angry and called Gray an a**hole and after that Gray said, “you may think that, but your wife supports me”.
At the June 11, 2012 Council meeting Barrows contradicted his statement in the police report and said “Gray made some extremely offensive comments about my wife and that is when I called him a**hole.”
Greg Berg, Director of Community Services for the City of Cerritos had spoken at the Council meeting in public on the incident (at the insistence of Barrows), but attempted to distance himself from the matter on Monday afternoon in an interview with LCCN.
“I am not going to comment about the matter any further, this does not involve the city of Cerritos,” he said.
Cerritos Councilwoman Carol Chen, an ardent support of Barrows said the incident was “not her concern, and it shouldn’t be the concern of Los Cerritos Community Newspaper.”
City spokeswoman Annie Hylton said “the city has no official comment on the matter at this time.” Barrows has not returned repeated calls to Los Cerritos Community Newspaper regarding the incident.
A copy of the hearing summons can be found at loscerritosnews.net.
