Updated at 3:35 p.m. July 2, 2015
Los Angeles Kings defenseman Slava Voynov pleaded no contest Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of corporal injury to a spouse stemming from an October fight with his wife that led to his suspension by the National Hockey League.
Superior Court Judge Eric C. Taylor sentenced Voynov to 90 days in jail, a yearlong domestic violence course, eight hours of community service and three years of probation.
In a statement, the Los Angeles Kings said, “We believe the legal system has effectively resolved this matter and the punishment is fair and just. Any act of domestic violence is unacceptable.
“As an organization, the prevention of domestic violence and the education of our players and employees is of paramount importance. We will continue to actively develop and implement a strategy to deliver this message. We remain steadfast in our support of the National Hockey League as they now begin their own investigative process. Until that is complete we will withhold further comment.”
Voynov was charged in November with a felony count of corporal injury to a spouse with an allegation of great bodily injury. Prosecutors amended the criminal complaint to add the misdemeanor charge, and the felony count and great bodily injury allegation were dismissed as a result of his plea.
The 25-year-old hockey player, who is from Russia, was suspended indefinitely by the NHL after his Oct. 20 arrrest by Redondo Beach police.
Voynov and his wife listened through Russian interpreters during the hearing, with Voynov agreeing to give up his right to a jury trial.
He had been set to go to trial next week in a Torrance courtroom.
“I think this is a fair resolution for my client,” one of Voynov’s attorneys, Pamela Mackey, told the judge.
Outside court, Deputy District Attorney Frank Dunnick told reporters he also believed it was a “fair disposition.”
Voynov walked into the Torrance courtroom and out of the courthouse hand-in-hand with his wife, Marta Varlamova.
At a hearing last December in which Voynov was ordered to stand trial, Redondo Beach police Officer Gregory Wiist testified that Varlamova told him that she had been involved in an altercation with her husband.
Wiist — who said he spoke to Voynov’s wife at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance where she was being treated for a laceration above her left eye — testified that the woman told him that she and her husband began arguing while attending a Halloween party the night of Oct. 19, and that Voynov punched her in the face when they went outside.
The officer testified that Varlamova said the argument continued when the couple got back to their Redondo Beach home, and that Voynov threw her to the ground multiple times, repeatedly kicked her and choked her three times.
She also said her husband pushed her into a flat-screen television on the wall, and her face struck the corner of it, Wiist testified.
The injury to Varlamova’s eye required eight stitches, Wiist testified.
The police officer acknowledged he did not seek his department’s help in trying to get a Russian interpreter for Varlamova, and testified that he was not aware of Varlamova’s subsequent account that what had happened was an accident.
Varlamova’s attorney, Michael J. Walsh, told the judge at a hearing in May that she did not want to testify in the case. But she agreed to undergo domestic violence counseling at the judge’s behest before making a final decision on testifying.
“I’d encourage her to continue counseling, but that is on her own,” the judge said after Voynov was sentenced.
The judge said Voynov has to surrender by July 14 to serve the jail term in a Los Angeles County jail facility or “any other local jail facility” in Southern California, and gave him credit for one day already spent behind bars.
If he violates the terms of his probation, he could be ordered to serve what is left of the maximum 364-day jail sentence, the prosecutor told Voynov during the hearing.
He set a progress report hearing Oct. 5, but Voynov is not expected to be required to appear in court then.
— City News Service