Restraining order issued in battery case
LANCASTER — In a hearing to establish a restraining order, the former interim-principal of Vasquez High School and the man she accuses of shoving her against a wall in the school office met face to face Friday morning for the first time since the alleged incident occurred.
Sharon Millen, who resigned as principal days after the incident, appeared shaken for much of the hearing.
Her alleged assailant, Charlie Bang Sr., appeared without an attorney and said several times that he meant no harm to Millen or anyone else.
Bang faces a criminal charge of battery against a school official in the incident.
“I’m not a violent person,” Bang said. “There was no violence prior, the incident lasted only three or four seconds, and there was no violence after.”
Bang told the judge that his lawyer, who was not present, had advised him against giving details of the exchange with Millen.
Judge Lawrence Hales warned Bang that he would have to waive his Fifth Amendment protection in order to testify. Bang was under oath, the judge told him, and everything he said would be on record.
Bang noted the caution, and agreed to waive his rights.
In Millen’s account of the incident, Bang arrived in her office unannounced on the morning of May 4. He brought his son, who was suspended and should not have been on campus, Millen said.
Bang asked that his son’s suspension be lifted, which Millen refused. Bang next demanded to see student testimonials regarding the suspension.
Millen again refused, asserting then and in court that the files are school property.
On the way out of the meeting, Millen said the son pointed to a stack of papers on the school secretary’s desk, telling his father the student statements were there.
Bang, according to Millen, grabbed for the papers.
“He said, ‘I’m taking these,’ ” Millen recalled, and she put her hand down over the stack of papers.
“He grabbed me by both shoulders and threw me against the wall,” she told the court. “I slid all the way to the floor.”
A student stepped between Millen and Bang, Millen said.
“Don’t you touch her again,” Millen remembers the student shouting.
Bang did not give a full account, as Millen did. He said only that he had come to Vasquez High on May 4 to contest his son’s punishment. He asked to see statements from other students and to speak to a teacher on campus.
Bang continued to insist that he was neither violent in nature nor a threat to Millen.
“I don’t think we need to be here at all, because I’ve shown no desire to do anything to her at all,” he said. “My action was appropriate. It was minimal. It was not extreme.”
Millen told the court in response, “I’m afraid of Mr. Bang.”
Judge Hales said he could not rule on the criminal merits of the case, but decided to establish the restraining order for three years .
“Something happened that put the petitioner (Millen) in fear, and that is enough to grant the restraining order,” Hales said.
Bang must stay 100 yards away from Millen at all times and cannot contact her except through his attorney. If she does return to Vasquez High — she may stay on as a consultant for the district — Bang can drop off his two sons in the school parking lot, but cannot leave his car.
“If you see her on the street, walk in the other direction,” the judge told Bang.
Bang asked to keep a firearm loaned to him by a friend. The gun was not Bang’s and is not in his possession now, Bang said.
Hales told Bang not to get it back from his friend.
“I see no reason for you to have a gun at this time,” Hales said. “Picking up the phone and dialing 911 is usually a better idea than picking up a gun and trying to shoot someone.”
Hales denied a request from Millen’s attorney, Andrew Ward, to make Bang pay Millen’s legal expenses, which are now being paid by the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District.
Bang insisted again that he was not a threat to Millen, even after Hales imposed the restraining order.
“Don’t be afraid of me. I’m not a violent person at all,” Bang told Millen. “If you were in a burning building, I would run in and save you.”
Millen gave no reply, and the judge said it would be the last time Bang would speak to Millen.
Table of contents for Millen and Bang
- Vasquez High official quits over scuffle
- Restraining order issued in battery case
Tags: acton, courts, crime, education, vasquez high