Near collision leads to arrest

Mike Swanson

Police arrested a Laguna Hills resident June 6 on suspicion of

assault with a deadly weapon after they say he drove his truck the

wrong way on Ocean Avenue and onto the sidewalk in an apparent

attempt to hit a pedestrian.

David Lee Horton, 23, apparently followed the victim, Daniel

Raessner of Irvine, to Laguna Beach.

Raessner said he had just driven from a court date in Laguna Hills

involving Horton’s soon-to-be adoptive father, Dwayne Brigham, Det.

Natalie Leal said.

“I never saw him,” Raessner said. “I was walking to the post

office with my daughter, she saw him coming up the wrong side of the

road and got out the way, and I had to get behind a tree at the last

minute to avoid being hit. Then he drove off, circled around again

and left.”

Raessner has had court disputes with Brigham for more than a year

involving a broken faucet in one of the rooms Raessner rented from

Brigham in Laguna Hills last year. The incident is the latest in a

series of events involving Brigham and Horton, Raessner said, from

physical fights to having his car spray-painted and keyed.

“This is getting ridiculous,” Raessner. “If they’re willing to try

to hit me with a truck, who knows what they’re willing to do next?”

Police arrested Horton at a friend’s house in Laguna Hills shortly

after talking to Raessner at around 2:30 p.m. He was held on $50,000

bail, but Brigham bailed him out shortly after, Leal said.

“I’m definitely worried about the retaliation factor,” Raessner

said Thursday. “It sounds to me like they got him on a minimal charge

and they should have held him a lot longer. I didn’t know they’d let

him out already.”

The Laguna Beach Police Department is only investigating what

happened June 6 on Ocean Avenue, and is leaving the rest to Orange

County Sheriff’s Department, officials said.

“This is a convoluted case,” Leal said. “There’s so much garbage

between these guys and differing accounts about what’s going on. I’m

glad they don’t live in Laguna Beach.”

Leal said one of the more bizarre details of the case is that both

Raessner’s daughter and Horton took pictures at the scene and

submitted them to police.