A staffer on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's anti-gang team has been placed on administrative leave after she was arrested in connection with a fight at a downtown nightclub.
Villaraigosa Chief of Staff Jeff Carr, who ran the mayor's anti-gang programs until he was promoted in 2009, said Blanca Martinez-Navarro has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.
"Other than that, I have no comment," Carr said in an e-mail Sunday.
Martinez-Navarro, 28, the Rampart program manager for the mayor's gang reduction and youth development office, was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery about 1:40 a.m. after police were called to the Conga Room at 800 W. Olympic Blvd. within the L.A. Live Complex, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the case.
Martinez-Navarro is being held at the Central Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. Her husband, Oscar Navarro, 29, was also booked on the same misdemeanor battery charge.
[Updated, 5 p.m.: Martinez-Navarro was released Sunday afternoon on $20,000 bail.]
The couple were attending a large party at the Conga Room when they allegedly became embroiled in a domestic dispute. When a security guard responded, Martinez-Navarro's husband allegedly began fighting with him, according to law enforcement sources who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing criminal investigation.
LAPD officers were then called to the scene. When police confronted Navarro, he struggled with officers, and his wife allegedly jumped onto one's back, the sources said.
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