Todd Bosnich, the former staffer for Republican Carl DeMaio's congressional campaign who accused DeMaio of sexual harassment, will appear in court on Tuesday to face charges of assaulting his mother.
Bosnich, 29, was arrested Tuesday morning on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, battery and disabling a wireless device, San Diego police Lt. Kevin Mayer said in an email.
Bosnich posted $30,000 bail and was released Tuesday evening from jail, Steve Walker, a spokesman for the District Attorney's Office, said Wednesday.
His arrest came after an incident on Friday evening at his mother's home, which falls within San Diego's border near Del Mar.
About 7 p.m. Friday, Bosnich got into an argument with his mother at a home in the 14700 block of Caminito Vista Estrellado, Mayer said. During the argument, Bosnich allegedly pushed his mother, disabled her phone and threw a drinking glass at her.
Bosnich will be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in San Diego Superior Court, Walker said. What criminal charges the District Attorney’s Office files against Bosnich will be announced then, he said. The office won't comment on the case before the hearing, Walker said.
Bosnich and his mother, Victoria Znorski, 60, have not returned repeated calls seeking comment. Bosnich's lawyer, Bibi Fell with the Gomez Trial Attorneys firm, who has been representing Bosnich since early June, said she would not be representing him on these criminal charges.
"Anything in the criminal arena is both outside my expertise and scope of representation," she wrote in an email.
Bosnich has said he hired the law firm soon after he said he was fired for accusing DeMaio of sexual harassment.
Through a spokesman, DeMaio declined to comment on Bosnich's arrest.
Bosnich, DeMaio’s former policy director, went public on Oct. 10 in an interview with CNN alleging that DeMaio sexually harassed him for months and that he was fired for telling DeMaio to stop the behavior.
DeMaio, who lost the tight race for the 52nd Congressional District seat to Democratic Rep. Scott Peters, has insisted Bosnich is lying about the sexual misconduct. He also has said that Bosnich was fired for plagiarizing a pension report and accused him of being behind a break-in at the campaign headquarters in late May. Bosnich denies both claims.
The District Attorney's Office last month said there was not enough evidence to file charges in the burglary at DeMaio's headquarters nor for the sexual harassment allegations.
This past Friday, beginning around 6 p.m., NBC San Diego and U-T San Diego published reports that Bosnich had more contact with the Peters campaign than previously disclosed.
Using those court records unsealed Friday, the news outlets reported Bosnich has been in contact with the Peters campaign since May 29. U-T San Diego reported Bosnich emailed "campaign strategy and campaign specific information" to Peters' campaign manager, MaryAnne Pintar, on that day.
Pintar turned those emails over to police two days later, according to the U-T.
Bosnich then met with Pintar on June 5 and gave her a copy of an interview he did with KFMB radio host Mike Slater in which he describes what he says DeMaio did to him, the U-T reported. CNN and other news outlets later came into possession of that interview. Both Bosnich and Pintar deny sending the interview to other news outlets.
"I gave it to my lawyer and the police and that's it," Pintar told KPBS.
Bosnich also gave Pintar printed copies of the "DeMaio media plan," according to the U-T.
Pintar took the materials home, made copies of them and gave those copies to Peters, according to the U-T.
Peters told KPBS he never saw the materials and kept them in an envelope. He gave them to his wife because he was leaving town. She gave them to police.
Pintar declined to comment on Bosnich's arrest.
The alleged incident between Bosnich and his mother happened shortly after the U-T San Diego and NBC San Diego reports began to air Friday evening. Bosnich continued to use social media on Sunday and Monday, posting repeatedly on Twitter and giving an interview to U-T San Diego.
Justin Harper, a second former DeMaio staffer who accused DeMaio of sexual harassment, said on Wednesday that he had not been contacted by the police about Bosnich's arrest, but has been contacted by San Diego Police sex crime detectives about his own allegations. Harper, a 25-year-old Navy veteran, went public with his accusations on the Sunday before the election. DeMaio denies sexually harassing Harper.
