Mayoral candidate and Councilman Greg Brockhouse (D6) again denied allegations of domestic violence on Friday after the San Antonio Express-News published a story accompanied by a document it obtained.
The document appears to be a police report filed by a San Antonio police officer, dated Dec. 23, 2009. The document includes a description of an allegation of domestic violence by Brockhouse, that he grabbed his current wife, Annalisa Brockhouse, and threw her on the ground.
“I’ve discussed it multiple times,” Brockhouse said Friday. “I absolutely deny it.”
Brockhouse is currently in a runoff election against Mayor Ron Nirenberg, where he seeks to unseat the one-term incumbent.
Brockhouse said he would defer to Annalisa, as she is the “best source,” and said he would ask her to email a statement. In a statement Friday, Annalisa said it was a “shame” to have to talk about the domestic violence allegation again. The Express-News first reported on the allegation in March, as well as another allegation from 2006 involving Brockhouse’s ex-wife Christine Rivera.
“I have never been in nor would I ever stay in an abusive relationship and I certainly wouldn’t keep my kids in an abusive environment,” she said.
The Rivard Report has made several attempts to schedule an interview with Annalisa. Rivera did not respond to requests for comment Friday.
The San Antonio Police Department had said the 2009 report didn’t exist in City records, and on Friday the department said it was unable to testify to the newly surfaced document’s veracity.
“We cannot verify a report that is not in our possession,” Lt. Jesse Salame said in an email Friday evening.
While community members agree that domestic violence remains a critical issue, not all believe that Brockhouse has fully addressed the domestic violence allegations leveled against him. A group of women, of a new organization called M?tú – Women of Diversity Defeating Violence, intend to hold a news conference Monday and present a petition to draw attention to the allegations against Brockhouse. The group said they believe the evidence shows a “pattern of abusive behavior.” As of Friday evening, 65 people had signed the petition.
Gina Galaviz Eisenberg, a co-chair of M?tú, said the group does not feel that Brockhouse has addressed the domestic violence allegations sufficiently and that threatening to leave a debate if the allegations were asked about, as Brockhouse did last month, raised a red flag.
“We’re not satisfied that he’s spoken about it,” she said. ‘Until he does, we all believe the community needs to keep the pressure up until we get honest answers.”
Eisenberg said many in M?tú, including herself, are survivors of domestic violence. One in three people in Texas will experience domestic violence in their lifetime, according to a Texas Council on Family Violence information sheet.
“You’re in a room, you see three grouped together — one in three,” she said. “It’s really alarming.”
Bexar County saw 25 domestic violence-related deaths last year, triple the number from 2015. Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales (D5) and Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8) recently wrote a request to City Council asking for domestic violence to be prioritized in the upcoming budget process.
Brockhouse said he supports that measure and included backing the proposal in the fifth goal of his action plan, released Friday, about improving public safety.
He labeled the allegations against him as a political tool wielded by Nirenberg.
“The fact that there are false allegations against me doesn’t mean [domestic violence] is not a real issue,” he said. “It’s an issue in San Antonio, period.”
