Update: Long Beach Officer to be Tried on 18 Counts

Updates with Long Beach Police Department reiteration of comment following the arrest.

A 29-year-old Long Beach police officer accused of repeatedly assaulting and threatening his wife was ordered today to stand trial.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Terry A. Bork found sufficient evidence to require Brandon Preciado to proceed to trial on 18 felony counts, including corporal injury to a spouse, assault with a deadly weapon, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and criminal threats, and one misdemeanor count of resisting, obstructing or delaying a peace officer.

The judge granted the defense's request to dismiss two other counts of corporal injury to a spouse, citing insufficient evidence.

On Wednesday, the Long Beach Police Department reiterated the following facts that it released following Preciado's January arrest:

• Preciado is a 6-year employee of the LBPD.
• He was assigned to the Patrol Bureau at the time of his arrest.
• He has been temporarily relieved of his duties pending further investigation.
• We are conducting an administrative review and will take the appropriate course of action.

The mother of three testified that her husband threatened to hit her with a work-issued flashlight and to break her jaw if she didn't tell him the truth during the first attack last September. She testified that Preciado then wrapped a belt around her neck.

Preciado's wife alleged she suffered bleeding from her nose during an attack last Nov. 11 in which her husband grabbed her neck in a headlock. She further testified that he choked her during a New Year's Day run-in, during which he told her that he wouldn't kill her at the time because her brothers were in the home.

``Were you scared for a long time?'' Deputy District Attorney Amy Pellman Pentz asked. ``Yes,'' she responded.

``Did you take him seriously at that moment?'' the prosecutor asked. ``Yes,'' she again replied.

The woman testified that her husband pushed her into a tile shower wall, struck her with a closed fist, threatened to hit her with a hammer and break her jaw and then struck her with a broom on Jan. 4.

Preciado hit her repeatedly Jan. 9 with his police-issued baton after ordering in an angry voice for her to get ``on all fours,'' and then woke her up a day later with his forearm against her neck, she testified.

The woman testified that she suffered a swollen left eye and bloody lips during the last alleged attack Jan. 12, saying her spouse repeatedly slapped her across the face, bent her left pinky back, bit her face and threatened that she should ``prepare to die.'' She managed to run to a neighbor's house to seek help.

Under cross-examination, she testified that her husband had been drinking alcohol before some of the run-ins and that she sought medical help after the last attack.

The prosecution's last witness, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Jaime Caloca, testified that he was among a team of deputies called in at about 6:50 a.m. after efforts had unsuccessfully been made, including a helicopter hovering overhead, to try to coax Preciado out of his home. He said Preciado was arrested after he came out of the home about 20 or 25 minutes later.

Preciado remains jailed without bail. He is due back in Los Angeles Superior Court March 14 for arraignment. The Long Beach Police Department could not be reached for immediate comment on Preciado's status.

--City News Service