Former Assemblyman out of Fullerton Chris Norby is accusing his fourth wife of having made false statements that led to his arrest early Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence and child endangerment. The 64-year-old, who denied similar allegations by his wife Martha in 2010, was booked into jail and released Wednesday evening after posting $10,000 bond, according to Fullerton Police Cpl. Mike Bova.
]
Chris Norby, Hot-Head State Assemblyman, Investigated for Roughing Up Wife No. 4
Bova provided no further details to City News Service about the circumstances of the arrest of Norby, who was formerly Fullerton's mayor, a county supervisor and, for three years, a state assemblyman. Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva, another former Fullerton mayor, won the 65th Assembly District seat away from Republican Norby in 2012.
Norby, who was arrested at his home in the 2800 block of Puente Street, accused his wife of having made false statements, KTLA/Channel 5 reports this morning. He has a March 19 arraignment date, although the Orange County District Attorney's office has not yet decided whether charges will be filed.
On Sept. 2, Fullerton cops were called to the Norby home by a deliveryman who overheard the couple in a verbal argument. Martha Norby, who was pregnant with her first child, later told officers her husband pushed her, something he vehemently denied, claiming the altercation was strictly verbal.
Martha Norby later changed her tune, saying, “My husband has never put a hand on me.” Citing lack of evidence, the DA's office declined to file charges against the politician.
Speaking of Norby's political life, he admitted to wrongly using campaign funds in 2008 to pay for a week's stay at a hotel while he was having marital problems. Three years earlier, a jury found him guilty of creating a hostile work environment for a female employee, although an appeals court later reversed the decision.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.