Encinitas council member’s criminal case started with alleged parking dispute

The allegations that led to criminal charges against an Encinitas City Council member arose from a parking dispute, as revealed during the city official’s arraignment Tuesday.

During a brief hearing in Vista Superior Court, Luke Shaffer, 45, pleaded not guilty to felony assault likely to produce great bodily injury; misdemeanor hit-and-run driving involving property damage and “willful omission to perform duty.”

In alleging the third charge, the complaint prosecutors filed last month notes that a council member “has a duty not to use their position to willfully make unlawful threats of retaliatory action against members of the public,” including threats to deny or obstruct permits.

During the hearing, Shaffer’s attorney, Isaac Blumberg, said his client “adamantly denies the allegations.”

Voice of San Diego first reported the news last month that Shaffer faced criminal charges, but details were not made public until the hearing.

According to the prosecution, the alleged victim was outside his Encinitas home when Shaffer moved the man’s trash bins so he could park his pickup. The man saw that, and the encounter between the two — strangers to each other — escalated. Deputy District Attorney Chandelle Boyce alleged that Shaffer backed into a trash bin as the man was near it, which Boyce said knocked the man back several feet, but he did not fall.

Boyce said the encounter was caught on video, although not all the words spoken can be heard.

After the hearing, Blumberg called the case “an outrageous overreach” by prosecutors.

“I remain shocked that the District Attorney’s office filed criminal charges in this case and then elevated those to a felony as opposed to a misdemeanor,” Blumberg said after the hearing. “At the end of the day, it’s really simple. This is a parking dispute.”

Blumberg said after the hearing that the alleged victim had been “trying to reserve the parking spot and did not want anybody parking there, and it was a spat over that parking spot. But to call it a felony assault, to call it felonious, is a drastic overreach.”

The attorney also said they are looking forward getting all the evidence “and we can start vindicating Councilman Shaffer.”

Boyce, the prosecutor, laid out the details of the allegations of the alleged July 5 incident in court.  According to Boyce, the alleged victim and stone masons he had hired were working outside his home, although Boyce did not name the street. Boyce said it was trash pick-up day, so the man had his trash bins “on the curb line of the street and he also had the trash bins temporarily blocking a space so that one of his worker’s trucks could do a trash run.”

A driver — who Boyce said was the defendant — pulled up in a Toyota Tundra and moved the trash cans in order to park and go to the beach, Boyce told the judge. She said the alleged victim approached Shaffer and explained that it was trash pickup day. She said Shaffer disputed that it was trash pickup day, and identified himself as an Encinitas City Council member.

The man started putting the trash bins back where they had been, Boyce said, and as he was moving one of them, the defendant pushed that bin and it fell over. She also said Shaffer threw styrofoam trash into the man’s face. She said the man continued to put the trash bins back in place.

Boyce alleged that Shaffer got into his truck and reversed it about 15 feet. “The defendant’s rear right tire truck crushed one of the recycle bins, and the tailgate of the truck struck (the alleged victim’s) upraised hands, pushing him back several feet,” she said.

The prosecutor said one of the stone workers yelled at Shaffer, and Shaffer said he was “going to call the deputy that works for him.” Boyce alleged that Shaffer then got out and dislodged the crushed bin from under his truck. As he left, according to Boyce, Shaffer told the alleged victim that he would never get another permit in Encinitas again.

The alleged victim snapped a photo of the truck’s license plate, and contacted law enforcement that day.

Shaffer was first elected to the council last fall. He represents the coastal Leucadia region and also areas around Quail Gardens Drive and part of northwestern Village Park.

An Encinitas native, Shaffer joined the Marine Corps after college and became an F/A-18 pilot. He spent 12 years in the Marines on active duty, including three tours to Iraq. Several people showed up in support of Shaffer, who also coaches lacrosse. Blumberg said there were more than 30 supporters in attendance, including the council member’s parents and wife.

Shaffer’s preliminary hearing is slated for Nov. 13.