Charged with assault causing injury with hate crime
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San Martin – Morgan Hill residents Charles Peralta, 29, and Nicole Agriesti, 21, waived a formal reading of the charges against them, entering pleas of not guilty, Monday morning before Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Shapero.
Peralta and Agriesti are charged with assault causing bodily injury with a special hate crime attachment. Both are free on $100,000 bail.
A tentative pre-trial date of April 24 was set.
On March 24, Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hood concluded a preliminary hearing to determine if there was sufficient evidence for the case to go to trial. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Susan Bernardini ruled their was, on both charges.
Peralta and Agriesti are accused of assaulting a Morgan Hill woman in the parking lot of the Cochrane Village apartments on July 21, 2005, after running over a bag of groceries. She asked them to pay for the groceries, she told police, and the alleged assault began. She was hospitalized twice when her doctor feared she might lose the baby girl, which was born healthy, though premature. Attorneys for the defense say the woman, Xochitl Calderon, was the instigator and Peralta and Agriesti were trying to defend themselves, in Agriesti’s case, or to break up the fight, in Peralta’s case.
