# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Carolina Taillon's civil suit seeks unspecified damages against Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina) over allegations of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He claims a political motive.

SACRAMENTO - State Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina) was sued Monday by a woman alleging that he physically abused her during a months-long relationship and that he used illegal drugs.

The civil suit was filed on behalf of Carolina Taillon by attorney Gloria Allred and seeks unspecified damages against Hernandez over allegations of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The lawsuit was filed the day before Hernandez stands for reelection in a contest with Republican Joe Gardner, a retired police officer. The assemblyman's attorney, Joe Weimortz Jr., said the allegations were timed to hurt the incumbent politically.

"Assemblyman Hernandez adamantly denies these allegations,'' Weimortz said. He characterized the allegations as a calculated effort to "tarnish the assemblyman's reputation on the eve of an election.''

Allred said Taillon and the lawsuit have nothing to do with the Gardner campaign. "She is not affiliated with him and is not a supporter of his,'' she said.

Many of Taillon's accusations were previously made in an emergency protective order she obtained from a court commissioner on Oct. 28. The order was issued after a verbal altercation she had with Hernandez at the Lazy Dog Cafe in West Covina.

In the protective order, a police officer wrote that Taillon "fears for her safety due to Hernandez using cocaine." In response, Hernandez voluntarily took a drug test last week that lab officials said indicated he had not used cocaine or other drugs in 30 days.

Weimortz said Taillon is a "habitual litigant'' who sought restraining orders against two other men in the past.

In the lawsuit, Taillon says that she and Hernandez were involved in a five-month relationship and that his "behavior was physically, verbally and emotionally abusive, resulting in personal injuries'' to her.

She alleges that in July, she suffered bruises when Hernandez threatened to "whip'' her if she changed the music they were listening to - a term he used often because he was the majority whip of the Assembly, she says.

Hernandez then allegedly took off his belt and struck her on the side. He also grabbed her and slammed her against the wall, the lawsuit alleges, adding that she later took photos of the bruises. No police report was filed.

On Oct. 7, the suit alleges, Hernandez told Taillon that "he had marijuana with him and asked Plaintiff Taillon to smoke with him.'' She refused, according to the lawsuit, which alleges that Hernandez went into the bathroom at her house and that she later smelled smoke there.
patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Woman's suit against Assemblyman Hernandez alleges physical abuse

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Carolina Taillon's civil suit seeks unspecified damages against Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina) over allegations of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He claims a political motive. SACRAMENTO - State Assemblyman Roger Hernandez (D-West Covina) was sued Monday by a woman alleging that he physically abused her during a months-long relationship and that he used illegal drugs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What You Probably Don't Know About Domestic Violence and Abuse

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Inmates await group therapy at Mule Creek State Prison. (Image filed in U.S. District...)

Prison lawyers have asked a federal judge to sanction California for excessive physical punishment, from overuse of pepper spray to isolation in barren cells, against mentally ill inmates.

In hundreds of pages of documents filed with the U.S. District Court late Wednesday night, the lawyers say California prison officials refuse to recognize behavioral problems, allowing even minor issues to escalate. As a result, they contend, a hallucinating inmate who ignores orders to push his food tray through a door slot can be assaulted with repeated rounds of massive amounts of pepper spray and then locked down in a holding cage.

There was no immediate response from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

"The culture in California prisons today is one of force and violence, dominated by punitive means of control, at the expense of all other methods of operation," lawyers suing the state on behalf of some 33,000 mentally ill inmates allege. They contend California has made no progress since 1994, when a federal magistrate first upheld original complaints of excessive force against mentally ill inmates, substituting tasers and 37-mm guns for "crowd control-sized [pepper] spray canisters, expandable batons, and chemical grenades."

The lawyers cited multiple cases of alleged abuse, including one in which a naked inmate housed in isolation cell, "yelling that he was the creator and threatening to kill himself" was pepper sprayed 44 times, including the use of four chemical grenades typically used for crowd control. Other inmates with asthma, and considered a medical risk for pepper spray, were sprayed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lawyers claim physical abuse of mentally ill inmates

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Inmates await group therapy at Mule Creek State Prison. (Image filed in U.S. District...) Prison lawyers have asked a federal judge to sanction California for excessive physical punishment, from overuse of pepper spray to isolation in barren cells, against mentally ill inmates. In hundreds of pages of documents filed with the U.S.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Police say Juan Jesus Martinez physically abused his 8-year-old daughter. (Oxnard Police Department )

A 33-year-old Oxnard father was arrested on suspicion of felony physical child abuse after his 8-year-old daughter accused him of injuring her, police said Thursday.

Juan Jesus Martinez was taken into custody after investigators received information Wednesday that a child had been injured by her father, according to the Oxnard Police Department.

"The victim told investigators that her father had hurt her and caused her injuries," police officials said in a statement.

Police did not specify how the child was injured.

Martinez was being held at Ventura County jail in lieu of $100,00 bail.
Detectives comb video in search of South L.A. store clerk's killer
Porn studio owner accuses group of creating 'hysteria around HIV'
Norwalk pastor sexually abused more than 20 parishioners, police say robert.lopez@latimes.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Man physically abused his 8-year-old daughter, police say

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Police say Juan Jesus Martinez physically abused his 8-year-old daughter. (Oxnard Police Department ) A 33-year-old Oxnard father was arrested on suspicion of felony physical child abuse after his 8-year-old daughter accused him of injuring her, police said Thursday.

# data[].attributes.body
Video (Malek)

# data[].attributes.body
1. 1 in 14 children have been physically abused.
2. Nearly 5.3 million domestic abuse cases happen every year among women 18 years or older.
3. Battered women average 7 beating by their partner a year.
4. About 1 in 7 men experience physical abuse by an intimate partner.
5. 9.4% of high school students have reported being abused physically by their partner.