Judge orders King City Police Officer Bobby Carrillo to stay away from fight victim, stay on meds.

King City Police Officer Bobby Carrillo has had a rough few months, according to his defense attorney, Susan Chapman.

Even before a spate of arrests in late February—which left the King City Police Department closed for a day, after about a third of KCPD officers, including Carrillo, were booked on various charges—Carrillo was taking anti-anxiety and anti-depressant meds, starting in January.

"He is currently on disability based on the stress he has been undergoing since the last year," Chapman told Monterey County Superior Court Judge Russell Scott in a hearing Friday morning. 

It was an alleged lapse in taking his prescribed drugs that led to a violent outburst in his Soledad home on Oct. 2. 

Carrillo was back in court Friday morning facing a new charge of misdemeanor battery for the fight, in which he allegedly attached 19-year-old Francisco Ibarra, a witness and potential co-conspirator in an alleged towing scheme.

In February, Carrillo was charged with conspiracy, accepting a bribe, and bribing an executive officer in connection to a towing scheme he allegedly masterminded, in which he targeted low-income drivers, impounded their cars, and gave the lion's share of the tow business to acting chief Bruce Miller's brother, Brian Miller, in exchange for cars as kickbacks. (Both Millers have also been charged in connection with that case.) 

Deputy District Attorney Steve Somers asked Judge Scott to up Carrillo's bail to $100,000, accounting for the fight with Ibarra. (Bail on the felony charges in February was set at $60,000 and paid; Carrillo has been out of custody, and shown up for all court dates.) 

"This new [battery] case seems to indicate Mr. Carrillo is becoming increasingly more unstable," Somers said. "As the evidence mounts, the defendant will become more and more filled with anxiety and depression. How much more desperate will Mr. Carrillo become?" 

Not very, Chapman countered. The fight with Ibarra, a long-time family friend, came about after Carrillo stopped taking his meds for two days. 

"He’s certainly not a flight risk, he’s maintained a family in this community " Chapman said. "He has never threatened anyone, and he has no prior criminal history whatsoever."

Scott set bail for the new charges at $10,000. He also ordered Carrillo to stay at least 100 yards away from Ibarra and keep taking his medications as prescribed.  

As for Ibarra, who just recently turned 19, he's known Carrillo for six years, according to somers. Ibarra participated in the Youth Explorer program, in which police officers mentor youth and guide them toward possible careers in law enforcement. (Retired KCPD Chief Nick Baldiviez and Officer Mario Mottu, Sr., were also charged in February in connection with allegedly transferring a souped-up police car from the Explorer program to Mottu.)

Ibarra has not cooperated with either prosecutors or with Chapman, both have asked him for statements on the alleged towing scheme. Somers spun his silence as a result of a long-standing friendship and possible intimidation by Carrillo, but Chapman says Ibarra has been directed by his defense attorney, Tom Worthington, not to speak publicly about the case. 

Ibarra may have driven some of the cars in the tow scheme, making him potentially a co-conspirator, and certainly a witness in the case, Somers said.