A tentative March 2 trial date was set today for Los Angeles Kings defenseman Slava Voynov, who is accused of punching his wife at a Halloween party and later kicking and choking her at their Redondo Beach home.
A Jan. 28 pretrial hearing date was also scheduled today for Voynov, 24, who pleaded not guilty to a single count of corporal injury to a spouse with great bodily injury.
During the defendant’s Dec. 15 preliminary hearing, Redondo Beach police Officer Gregory Wiist said he spoke to Voynov’s wife — Marta Varlamova — at Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance, where she was being treated in the early morning hours of Oct. 20.
“She was crying, sobbing,” Wiist said. “I saw tears streaming down her face. She was an emotional wreck.”
Wiist said Varlamova had a laceration above her left eye and red marks on her neck and “told me that she was involved in a physical altercation with her husband.” Wiist noted that she identified her husband by name and said he was number 26 for the Los Angeles Kings.
Wiist said that according to Varlamova, the couple began arguing while attending a Halloween party the night of Oct. 19, and when they went outside, Voynov punched her in the face.
She told the officer that the couple went home, where the argument continued, and Voynov threw her to the ground multiple times, repeatedly kicked her and choked her three times. Varlamova also said her husband pushed her into a flat-screen television on the wall, and her face struck the corner of it, Wiist said.
She said the attack continued until Voynov saw the blood coming from her face, according to Wiist. He said that according to Varlamova, she asked Voynov to call for “emergency services,” but he instead called a friend and then drove her to the hospital.
The injury to Varlamova’s eye required eight stitches, Wiist said.
Voynov was arrested at the hospital.
Wiist said police took Varlamova back to the couple’s home, where he said he observed blood on a comforter and the floor, along with a bloody handprint on the floor.
Redondo Beach police had initially responded to the home the night of Oct. 19 on a report of a domestic dispute, but nobody was home when officers arrived. Police were called to the Torrance hospital about an hour later.
Upon cross-examining the officer, defense attorney Pamela Mackey noted that Voynov’s wife said police had not allowed her to speak with her husband, though she told an officer that Voynov could help her because she didn’t speak English.
The judge refused to allow the admission of a letter Varlamova wrote regarding what she said occurred that night.
In a copy of the letter obtained by TMZ, Varlamova said the couple “consider our marriage to be good” and praised Voynov as a “good and loving stepfather” to her 7-year-old daughter.
Varlamova, who said she has a degree in economics, wrote that she and Voynov had a disagreement at the party, but no one was hurt there. While continuing the argument at home, she said Voynov pushed her to get away from her and she fell against the edge of the TV.
“He didn’t push me into the television or throw me into the television,” she wrote. “Slava was as shocked as I was when I turned and hit the corner of the television and he tried to help me right away.”
She asked at four times for a translator, according to the letter, and continued repeating the same questions while she waited to have her head stitched up.
In the letter, Varlamova urged the District Attorney’s Office not to press charges, saying, “I do not think it is right.”
Voynov was immediately suspended indefinitely with pay by the NHL following his arrest.
Earlier this month, the Kings were fined $100,000 by the National Hockey League for allowing Voynov to skate with the team during a club practice. The Kings acknowledged the mistake and vowed to be “more vigilant in managing this situation.”
The Stanley Cup-winning hockey player — whose first name is Viatcheslav — is from Chelyabinsk, Russia.
