The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office said Friday prosecutors were not filing charges from a criminal threat investigation into a February incident alleged between neighbors of a Canyon Country apartment complex, which also resulted in a report of a hate incident.
A Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station official confirmed Wednesday the station had been notified charges would not be filed against Michael Ellsworth Madison, a 55-year-old who was arrested after his neighbor alleged that he threatened to “pistol whip” them, according to a deputy’s report.
A spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office provided the following statement Friday via email in response to a request for the charge-evaluation worksheet:
“The police reports were evaluated, and it was determined this matter is best resolved through an Office Hearing process as it’s an ongoing dispute between two neighbors,” according to the email sent Friday on behalf of the office by spokesman Greg Risling.
He referred a follow-up request for the sheet to the office’s Public Records Act division. It was requested Friday and was not immediately made available.
Madison was arrested after an incident recorded on video and shared on social media by the alleged victim was reported to the SCV Sheriff’s Station.
Deputy Robert Jensen, spokesman for the SCV Sheriff’s Station, said Wednesday that the woman identified as the victim in the report notified station officials after the incident was shared on social media.
Jensen said the report was investigated by the station’s Detectives Bureau and then recommended to the DA’s Office for charges April 4.
Evidence from the investigation — recounted in a court order authorizing the March 26 search and seizure of a small-caliber handgun from Madison’s Claudette Street home — included video of the alleged threat. The victim told detectives she was advised to film their interactions by her homeowners association due to repeated incidents, according to the detective’s report.
Jensen also confirmed that it had been reported that a racial epithet was used. He said hate incidents are not classified under the state’s criminal code, and the deputy’s report was forwarded to the Human Relations Commission of Los Angeles County.
The commission on April 2 released its first ever countywide report on such incidents, which it plans to release annually. Its stated goal is to address the challenges of hate, bias, bullying, and bigotry with four programs that build community equity, inclusion and healing, according to its website.
