Columbia City Councilman Moe Baddourah, who also holds a position on USC's faculty and is the director of the McCutchen House, was arrested Saturday and charged with criminal domestic violence in the second degree.
The 53-year-old turned himself in, and the charges are for an incident that reportedly occurred Wednesday evening outside of Rockaway Athletic Club restaurant. Baddourah is accused of slamming his wife's leg in a car door during an altercation over a child custody exchange.
Baddourah denies the accusations. He says that his wife snatched his phone and he made an effort to get it back from her before she could lock it away in the car.
Authorities have released the phone call Baddourah made to a 911 dispatcher just after the incident. He told the dispatcher that his wife, Carrie, had tried to steal his phone.
"She took my cell phone and she tried to take it away, but I followed her and I got it back," Baddourah said.
He said that his wife took his phone and tried to run away with it, but she stopped when she realized that she did not have their children with her.
"I've got my phone back but I just, I think, she was trying to do something not good," Baddourah told the dispatcher. "I have to be honest with you, but that's why I wanted to report it and I want an incident report. I don't want it to come back and she start lying about what really happened."
Baddourah also explained that he and his wife are going through a divorce and that the incident occurred during a child custody exchange.
"And this all had happened in front of the children, which is not good," Baddourah said.
Baddourah's sister-in-law also dialed 911 to report the incident. She said she had witnessed Baddourah assaulting her sister and "felt the need to report it," but Baddourah denies the accusations.