Following April 7 news that prosecutors declined to file criminal, domestic violence charges against him, former Orange County state Assemblyman Chris Norby–a longtime, vocal opponent of public employee unions–told his supporters that Fullerton Police Department officers, hellbent on a politically-motivated witch hunt, smeared him.
“I was treated with hostility and disdain by the arresting Fullerton police officers, and many have seen political motives based on my past and possible future activities,” Norby wrote in a letter to his supporters. “There were no witnesses, no evidence [and] no case.”
Police arrested the Republican politician in March after his wife claimed he'd committed repeated acts of domestic violence, including forcing her to have violent, non-consensual, sexual intercourse.
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Orange County prosecutors reviewed Fullerton PD's request for charges, but determined they did not possess enough information to win a conviction against Norby, who filed for divorce from his wife after the arrest.
(See Matt Coker's report on the DA's decision HERE.)
In 2012, the former high school teacher, city councilman and county supervisor lost his Assembly seat to Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva.
He's not running in this election, but there's persistent speculation of a comeback campaign.
The extent of the public relations damage from the domestic violence controversies isn't known, but Norby is hoping he can move on.
“Someday this travesty will be completely behind us,” he wrote.
Over the years, Norby and likeminded Libertarian-leaning political activists in Fullerton have repeated challenged what they see as excessive perks and pay for local cops, a stance that prompted angry retorts by police union members.
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CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.