Longtime Democratic strategist, Gov. Newsom ally to face trial

Prosecutors say Ballard shoved his wife into glass door

NAPA >> A Napa County judge on Wednesday found there is sufficient evidence to try prominent Democratic strategist Nathan Ballard, a longtime ally of Gov. Gavin Newsom, on charges of felony domestic violence and child abuse.

Judge Scott Young made the determination to send the case to trial after a preliminary hearing. He also denied a motion by Ballard’s attorney to reduce the charges to misdemeanors, according to Assistant District Attorney Paul Gero.

Ballard faces felony charges of corporal injury on a spouse/cohabitant and felony child abuse or endangering a child with possible great bodily injury from an incident Oct. 17.

Ballard allegedly pushed his wife into a glass door and attempted to suffocate their young child with a pillow during a family getaway at a resort and spa in Napa

County. He was arrested after his wife reported the incident and is out of custody after posting bail. He has pleaded not guilty to both counts.

At Wednesday’s hearing, his attorney, Anthony Brass, cross-examined a deputy who interviewed Ballard’s daughter. The daughter told the deputy, who Brass said specializes in interviewing child victims, that “she heard her dad snoring when he laid on her, before, during and after the alleged asphyxiation.”

“She was very clear about that,” Brass said in an interview Wednesday evening. “In order to commit the act of child abuse, your act has to willful. Our position is Mr. Ballard was asleep that comes across clearly from the child’s interviewer.”

Ballard has completed treatment for alcohol and also took an anger management class, Brass said.

“He’s doing every type of therapy to address any issues that might come up,” Brass said. “He wants objective things that he can show that he’s done in order to reassure his children that he’s a safe parent.

“He has two children from his first marriage who adore him. I don’t know anyone who ever said he was a danger to those children. This is one incident. He’s never been arrested before.”

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, county prosecutors said at Ballard’s initial hearing in December that he was not following a stay-away order from his wife and two children. On Wednesday, Brass asked the court to modify the restraining order, which Judge Young denied, Gero said.

Ballard started in San Francisco politics working as a spokesman for the city and later Mayor Newsom. Since he started his PR crisis business, his clients have included the Golden State Warriors and the state Democratic Party.

He is due back in court May 18 at 8:30 a.m.