An Orange County Board of Education trustee is accused of choking and stepping on a 20-year-old neighbor in the middle of the street during a road rage incident last year, according to a lawsuit.
Dr. Ken Williams Jr., who serves in District 3 and is up for reelection on the March 5 primary ballot , is accused of kicking the man’s car, throwing him on the ground and climbing on top of him before putting his hands around his neck.
The lawsuit alleges that the 65-year-old Williams left the driver, Caden O’Malley, struggling and “unable to walk” on a 55-mile-per-hour roadway in Mission Viejo.
“Caden, struggling, somehow crawled to the side of the road to call for emergency medical assistance,” the suit reads.
Kimberly Edds, a spokesperson for the Orange County district attorney’s office, said both Williams and O’Malley were cited for assault and battery after they were interviewed by county sheriff’s deputies.
“Based on the totality of the evidence, our prosecutor determined he was unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt who the primary aggressor was,” Edds wrote in an email, characterizing the incident as “[m]utual combat with valid self-defense argument by both.”