A candidate for county supervisor who lost the district’s
primary race March 2 was arrested on suspicion of corporal injury
to his 11-year-old child after an incident at his Fairview Road
home last week.
A candidate for county supervisor who lost the district’s primary race March 2 was arrested on suspicion of corporal injury to his 11-year-old child after an incident at his Fairview Road home last week.
However, the charges against Grant Brians were reduced on Monday to one count of misdemeanor assault and one count of misdemeanor battery, according to court records.
“It was a family dispute,” said Brians’ lawyer, Arthur Cantu, who declined to comment further on the allegation because it involves a juvenile.
Brians, 44, is married with three sons; two of them are 11 years old and the other is approaching the age of 1.
The specifics of the allegation and its source are unclear. Prosecutors allege in court records Brians used “force and violence” against his son in an “attempt to commit violent injury.”
A candidate for District 1 supervisor, Brians was arrested by sheriff’s deputies and booked into the San Benito County Jail on March 18.
He was initially arrested for corporal punishment to a minor – a felony, according to Sheriff Curtis Hill. Brians would have had to post $50,000 bail and if found guilty would have faced up to six years in prison.
Hill declined to comment further because the allegation involves a minor, he said.
But Brians was released Monday on his own recognizance – meaning he didn’t have to post bail. And if found guilty of the misdemeanor, he faces a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $2,000 fine.
It is unclear why his charge was reduced – his lawyer and law enforcement officials declined to comment on the matter.
A pretrial conference is scheduled for April 8. Brians will request that the charge be “dismissed in its entirety,” according to Cantu.
Brians, who has not held a previous elected office, placed third in the District 1 race with 14 percent of the vote.
Don Marcus narrowly won without a run-off because he gained 50.1 percent of the vote. Marci Huston came in second with 36 percent.
