Santa Barbara County – Smoking cigarettes and all that it entails can be a very expensive habit in today’s world…particularly when it leads to criminal assault.
On the night of January 14th, Dinu Antofie, 45—who was visiting a friend’s Los Olivos apartment in the Santa Ynez Valley just north of Santa Barbara—apparently ignored a landlord-tenant agreement in place prohibiting smoking on the premises.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover’s report to the media, a verbal disagreement about Antofie’s smoking ensued and was soon followed by something far more serious than mere words. As described by Hoover, “Antofie returned to the residence armed with an expandable baton”. Facing the landlord, Antofie then “allegedly pushed and struck the elderly victim before shoving him to the ground.” At that point, according to Hoover’s incident report, Antofie then proceeded to strike the man on the legs while he was down, “leaving welts and marks.”
No doubt realizing that he had perhaps momentarily “lost it”, Antofie then fled the scene, but not before warning the much older man that more harm would come his way should he report these events to law enforcement.
The following day—pursuant to the landlord’s complaint of the crime—SBSD Criminal Investigations Division Detectives were made aware of Antofie’s location at a Santa Ynez restaurant, whereupon contact was made and he was arrested without incident. Antofie was then transported to Santa Barbara County Jail where he was booked on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, victim intimidation, and elder abuse, with his bail set at $100,000.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
Read more:
Santa Ynez Valley News: SY man arrested on suspicion of elder abuse
EdHat: Elderly victim struck with baton
Noozhawk: suspect accused of striking elderly man with baton
