By Alana Bleimann
SACRAMENTO – As it turned out, Cesar Gutierrez’ biggest mistake—at least in terms of criminal damage—was not his alleged assault on his wife, but his resisting arrest.
Assistant Public Defender Alicia Hartley said her client would accept an offer in Sacramento County Superior Court here Monday where he would plead no contest to resisting arrest in exchange for a 90-day sheriff’s work project after Gutierrez threatened to fight a police officer investigating his attack on his wife.
Interestingly, the domestic violence assault charge was dismissed when Gutierrez pleaded no contest to misdemeanor resisting arrest.
In late October of this year, Gutierrez allegedly attacked his victim, whom he had been married to since 2012, in their Sacramento home. In front of their children, Gutierrez “said horrible things” and proceeded to antagonize the victim, according to the police report.
The reason for such an outburst was not described, but Gutierrez was accused of throwing “a couch pillow at her [the victim], knocking her over.”
The defendant straddled her on the ground and “yelled in her face” until she ran to the bathroom. While in the bathroom, the defendant allegedly “grabbed the victim’s face and told her to shut” while “squeezing her cheeks,” resulting in a one-half inch laceration on her lower right lip and a bruise to her chin.
When the officers arrived at the scene, according to prosecutor Jenna Saavedra, they recognized the home from a “prior call to service.”
When coming in contact with the officers, Gutierrez said “he would fight the police and the police said they would Tase him.” The report said Gutierrez continued to “act aggressively,” continued to be “loud” and was “verbally confrontational.”
In order to maintain peace and keep a “calm manner,” officers said they tried to grab him even though Gutierrez continued to resist arrest. In fact, the arrest “took approximately three minutes” to complete and one officer left with “a small abrasion on his shin,” officers said.
A few hours prior to the hearing, the court signed a protective order for the victim. But Gutierrez spoke out in court, and said “my wife wants it [the order] dropped” and that she wants full contact with him.
“The People are not comfortable” with lifting the order completely, said Deputy District Attorney Jenna Saavedra, who then proceeded to ensure the judge would sign off on a peaceful contact order.
Gutierrez was given three years of informal probation, 90 days on the Sheriff’s Work Project and anger management classes.
Alana Bleimann is a junior at the University of San Francisco majoring in Sociology with a minor in Criminal Justice Studies. She is from Raleigh, North Carolina.
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