The wife of a Fulton County commissioner charged with misdemeanor battery said in a hearing Friday that calling 911 on her husband "was a huge mistake."
“I’m not a victim,” Kristen Arrington said. “It was a misunderstanding between two married people. He tried to walk away and I wouldn’t allow it.”
Still, a judge decided there was probable cause in the case, which stemmed from a fight over a text message Kristen Arrington found on Marvin Arrington, Jr.'s cell phone. Cobb County Magistrate Judge Gerald Moore sent the case to Fulton County State Court.
In the Sept. 11 incident, Marvin Arrington sought to take his phone back from his wife after she tried to call a woman who had sent him a text "that seemed a little bit out of the norm," Kristen Arrington said. Though the police report said Marvin Arrington "became angry and lunged toward her and tried to take the phone from her" hand, Kristen Arrington said Friday that her husband was never angry.
“I did exaggerate that 911 call,” she said. “A lot of what I said was me being very emotional.”
Kristen Arrington said she was “feisty” and has “a temper,” and that she would not let go of her husband’s phone. Though the police report said she was pushed to the ground, she said Friday that she “slid to the floor” from a leather chair as Marvin Arrington pulled his phone from her hand. The police report’s description of her arm being twisted behind her back was “just a matter of angles” as they “tussled” over the device, she said.
And while the report said she was dragged across the floor, it was a result of Kristen Arrington grabbing her husband’s belt “as leverage to hold him back” as he tried to leave their house, she said.
“We’ve all been in situations where emotions run high,” she said.
The discrepancies between the written reports and Kristen Arrington’s testimony led to his decision that there was probable cause to continue the process, judge Moore said. Douglas County Solicitor Matthew Krull, who is prosecuting the case, said “more times than not” in domestic violence cases, the victim recants his or her testimony after making an initial report.
Krull will now decide whether to file an accusation or dismiss the case. Moore and Krull are involved in the case to avoid conflicts with Marvin Arrington’s job as a county commissioner.
Keith Adams, who is representing Marvin Arrington, said he thinks there are still political considerations in the case. He accused Krull of attacking Kristen Arrington as if she was the defendant.
Marvin Arrington, the son of retired Fulton County Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington, Sr., was elected to office in 2014. The incident will have no bearing on his ability to stay in elected office.
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