A Cook County judge Thursday found former Ald. Ricardo Munoz not guilty of misdemeanor domestic battery after a short bench trial Thursday.
Munoz’s misdemeanor domestic violence charge stemmed from an alleged altercation with his wife, Betty Torres-Munoz, on New Year’s Eve.
Judge Callie Lynn Baird ruled immediately Thursday after about three hours of testimony, which included both Torres-Munoz and the former Little Village alderman on the witness stand. The estranged couple gave different accounts of their quarrel the night of Dec. 31, which was touched off a day earlier when Torres-Munoz discovered text messages from the alderman’s mistress on her husband’s cellphone.
Torres-Munoz said her husband was drunk and angry after she told him he had to leave their house, and that he grabbed her by the shoulders, shook her “violently,” causing her to fall onto a staircase. Munoz testified that he remained calm, and pushed his wife as he tried to get past her and up the stairs to get some clothing and medication before he left.
Police reports and notes from a nurse who talked with Torres-Munoz when she visited a hospital two days later both said Torres-Munoz had been “grabbed” by her husband, the judge noted.
The criminal complaint said that Torres-Munoz was “pushed about the body.”
“She never said he ‘pushed’ her... If she said she had been pushed, it would have been in the reports,” the judge said before making her ruling. “Your complaining witness’ statement does not conform to your complaint.”
Munoz declined comment as he walked out of the courthouse. Torres-Munoz left a few minutes later and also declined to talk to reporters.
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In January, Torres-Munoz filed a petition for an order of protection saying she and her husband “engaged in a [heated] argument” and that Munoz “forcibly” grabbed her and pushed her backward, causing her to hit her back and head, and twisted her arm.
The couple’s divorce is pending.
Munoz, who did not seek re-election in the 22nd Ward, has been living with a relative in Carol Stream and is in counseling for alcoholism.
