Bakersfield City Council candidate Mike Madrigal faces calls to drop out of the race over an allegation that he assaulted a woman with a knife nearly two decades ago.
The victim’s husband and sister appeared on KBAK on Monday to publicly call on Madrigal, who is running in Ward 5, to drop out.
Driving the news: Sachiko Morrison, the victim’s sister, posted on Facebook over the weekend that Madrigal put a knife to her sister’s neck and “gave her a scar for the rest of her life.”
- Morrison told KBAK that her sister, Aiko Sullivan, had to get 11 stitches after Madrigal cut her in 2005 when they were leaving a party.
The big picture: Madrigal was dating Sullivan when they were students at Ridgeview High School and attended a party in June 2005, where Madrigal was arrested.
- Madrigal said he took Sullivan’s car keys and cut her when she tried to take them back.
- Court records show that Madrigal was arrested on two misdemeanors for assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment. He pleaded no contest to the false imprisonment charge, while the assault with a deadly weapon charge was dismissed.
Madrigal’s response: Madrigal told the Bakersfield Californian that he and Sullivan were intoxicated at the party and he took her keys so she did not drive drunk.
- He said he pulled out a pocket knife to scare her, calling it a “foolish mistake.”
- “She knew that I would never harm her, so the attempt to frighten her did not work,” Madrigal told the Californian in an email. “She tried to physically take her keys from me and during a brief scuffle she accidentally sustained a minor cut. Someone at the party called the police.”
- Madrigal later served in the Marine Corps, touring in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he “grew up very quickly” and is now a “far more responsible person” than he was at 21 years old.
What they’re saying: “Every day, I have to drive past his signs, and knowing that somebody who was my abuser may be my city councilman,” Sullivan told KBAK. “What happens if I have an issue that I want to take out, I’m gonna have to go to my abuser?”
State of play: Madrigal is running against Kevin Oliver and Larry Koman for the southwest Bakersfield seat.
- He has the support of the Kern County Republican Party and Rep. Vince Fong (R–Bakersfield).
