FORT BRAGG – MENDOCINO COUNTY – October has been named Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and was designated so by the US Congress in 1989. And in an unfortunate coincidence, the National Football League has increased awareness in dramatic fashion, with arrests of Baltimore’s Ray Rice and San Francisco’s Ray McDonald putting a spotlight on the issue for all America to see. But the real problem is the day to day incidents that occur in homes across the country. And of course domestic violence is not only husband on wife assault or abuse, it often involves couples in a dating relationship, or in a broken relationship.
As September drew to a close, the Mendocino Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of a man who assaulted a woman he was described to be in a dating relationship with. Deputies responded to a call last Sunday morning, about 6:55 am, to a woman reporting she had been attacked by her boyfriend, 45-year-old Randy Dean Gibney. When they took her statement, she showed injuries to her neck and face, and said they were the result of him attacking her during an argument at his home on Babcock Way.
Babcock Lane in Fort Bragg.
Gibney has a past of violence. Records show he was arrested in 2006 on charges of battery, vandalism, and driving with a license suspended for a past DUI. He was charged in January 2012 of assault with a deadly weapon, and in December of 2013, for battery on a spouse or co-habitant. (Since records of victims of abuse are sealed, it is not clear if that victim and this latest one are the same person.)
Deputies responded to the location on Babcock Lane, in rural Fort Bragg, inland along Highway 20. Gibney was arrested without further incident, and charged with committing corporal injury to a spouse or co-habitant, along with outstanding warrants, probation violations, and a failure to appear in court charge. He was booked at the Mendocino County Jail with $25,000.00 bail.
