A Morgan Hill couple accused of allegedly beating a pregnant
woman in the summer of 2005 were finally sentenced Monday morning
to community service after pleading guilty Nov. 5.
MORGAN HILL
A Morgan Hill couple accused of allegedly beating a pregnant woman in the summer of 2005 were finally sentenced Monday morning to community service after pleading guilty Nov. 5.
Two and a half years after the July 21, 2005 incident, the battery case tinged with racial overtones finally wrapped up, with Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Shapero ordering Charles Peralta, 31, and Nicole Agriesti, 23, to be placed on court-ordered probation.
Agriesti and Peralta were ordered to perform 85 and 75 hours of community service, respectively and to also be responsible for some other restitution to the victim which was not specified.
The couple was arrested and charged with battery for allegedly assaulting Xochitl Calderon, 34, who was approximately one month pregnant when she alleged having been beating in the parking lot of her apartment complex on Cochrane Road at Butterfield Boulevard.
The case was continued at least six times after the preliminary hearing about a year ago and never came to trial. A hate crime enhancement, part of the initial charges because Peralta yelled “wetback” at Calderon during the incident, was dropped, and Agriesti and Peralta pled guilty to the battery charge Nov. 5.
Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Mark Hood said the defendants will also have two years of court probation.
Deputy Public Defender Javier Rios, who represented Peralta, issued a press release Monday morning saying time had exposed Calderon as manipulative, having a short and nasty temper, being violent, having an apparent history of mental illness. “Worst of all, the passage of time showed that she was lying. The Morgan Hill Police Department and the community bought Xochitl Calderon’s outrageous lie hook line and sinker because her story was sensational.”
In his press release, Rios described why his client Peralta plead guilty to the battery charge.
“Mr. Peralta plead guilty to the minor charge of simple battery because he tossed a penny at the complaining witness after she demanded money for some damaged groceries … The defense believes that this tossed penny is part of what set off the explosive temper of Xochitl Calderon. The rest of the incident was the fault of Xochitl Calderon, not Charles Peralta, not his girlfriend.”
Hood did not want to comment on Rios’ allegations that Calderon is a liar and the event is a hoax without seeing the press release.
“He can spin it anyway he wants to, but he (Peralta) is on court-ordered probation, he plead guilty to battery,” he said. “His comments to the media, to the Morgan Hill Times, were disturbing in and of themselves.”
In a Sept. 12, 2006 Morgan Hill Times story, Peralta said, “Sure, I called her a ‘wetback,’ but that doesn’t mean anything; I’m Mexican, our first language is Spanish, and I’m proud to be Mexican … It’s just like white people calling each other ‘whitey,’ or whatever. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Rios also stated in his press release that the defense “could prove that Xochitl Calderon has a history of mental illness that could impair her ability to control her temper.”
Calderon and witnesses told police that Peralta and Agriesti assaulted her after she kicked their car upset that they had ran over a bag of groceries she had set down in the parking lot. Peralta reportedly threw a coin at her when she demanded they reimburse her for the destroyed food, and that’s when the fight began. Calderon and some witnesses said even though Calderon told the couple repeatedly that she was pregnant, they kicked and hit her in the abdomen. Peralta said Calderon was the instigator, and Agriesti was trying to defend herself while Peralta was trying to break up the fight.
Calderon was transported to Saint Louise Regional Hospital after the incident, and her doctor told police she might lose the baby, but she did not.
Morgan Hill police Cmdr. David Swing said there were nine officers involved in the case in one way or another.
“We are glad to see it resolved,” he said Monday. “It is certainly unfortunate that the victim had to wait two and a half years to see closure for this traumatic event in her life. This case did consume a lot of department resources, but now we can put it behind us. Every time the case was rescheduled, several of our officers had to put their personal schedule on hold to prepare for the case, to be available to appear in court.”
Swing said he would not comment on Rios’ allegations that Calderon has a history of mental illness because that is a “personal privacy issue.”
