California politician in 1993 stabbing says she and victim are friends

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Oct. 16, 2024 3 AM PT

Michelle Chambers was 19 and living in Harrisburg, Pa., when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for stabbing a pregnant woman with a kitchen knife in 1993.

The woman was a friend then, Chambers said, and remains a friend now, years after Chambers moved to California and built a career in local and state government.

But now the decades-old allegations are resurfacing as Chambers runs for a South Los Angeles seat in the state Senate in a hotly contested race against fellow Democrat Laura Richardson.

Chambers declined The Times’ request for an interview to discuss the allegations, but provided a written statement through her campaign. It said that at the time, she was a single mother living in public housing who could not afford a lawyer to prove her self-defense case in a jury trial. Chambers argued that the ordeal is emblematic of flaws within the criminal justice system, which reflects her current policy positions against tough-on-crime bills.

“I was assigned a public defender. The criminal justice system is unfortunately too often built to give people who don’t have resources no choice but to take the plea deal the prosecutors offer them, and that’s what happened to me,” Chambers wrote. “That’s one of the reasons I’m running for state Senate — to ensure that the criminal justice system works for everybody, not just the wealthy and well connected.”

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Chambers was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault on Oct. 14, 1993, by the Harrisburg Police Department, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by The Times. The victim, Rhonda Tobey, was transported to a local hospital due to the lacerations, which were described in the complaint as “serious bodily injury.”

“These acts are a manifestation of extreme indifference to the value of human life,” the complaint read.

Tobey was two months pregnant at the time. She declined to speak with a Times reporter by phone and said she would answer questions about the incident by email only. The written responses she sent The Times appeared to have been forwarded to her in an email from the Chambers campaign.

“Following a misunderstanding between us, I initiated a physical altercation during which Michelle tried to defend herself,” Tobey’s response read. “I sustained minor injuries by accident. Anybody who claims she ‘stabbed me’ is lying and doesn’t understand what happened.”

Tobey wrote that she is supporting Chambers’ run for office and said “it’s offensive that anyone would try to use what happened between us 30 years ago to smear her like this.”

Former Dauphin County Dist. Atty. John F. Cherry wrote in a Jan. 19, 1994, indictment that Chambers, then known as Michelle Lomax, “did intentionally or knowingly cause or attempt to cause bodily injury to another with a deadly weapon.”

The document said Chambers “stabbed the victim in left side and right thigh” with a kitchen knife and cited her with aggravated assault with a weapon, a felony in Pennsylvania.

She signed a plea deal June 20, 1994, on the lesser charge of simple assault, a misdemeanor in Pennsylvania, and was sentenced to 12 months’ probation, then released after six months for good behavior.

In 2002, Chambers also pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge in a separate incident in Harrisburg. She wrote in a statement that a woman in a “drug-induced haze” had confronted her family while at a restaurant.

“When I tried to leave, she got aggressive and I defended myself and my children,” Chambers wrote. “The woman was arrested and incarcerated.”

Similar to the 1993 incident, Chambers wrote she had no “access to resources” to dispute the charge.

Chambers relocated to California in 2009 and developed a career in public service. In 2019 she was elected to the Compton City Council, which she left in 2022 to take a job at the California Department of Justice as an external affairs manager.

She said she “fully complied with all policies” of the Department of Justice, including a background check, upon her employment.

The state Department of Justice said in a statement that it requires a “fingerprint-based state and federal criminal record check for all individuals prior to employment.” California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, the state’s top law enforcement official who oversees the department, has endorsed Chambers in her race for state Senate. His political spokesman did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

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Chambers previously told The Times that she does not support Proposition 36 on the Nov. 5 ballot, a measure that would impose stiffer penalties on certain retail thefts and drug crimes. She said she was concerned it would lead to more people being incarcerated.

The measure has divided Democrats. Richardson, Chambers’ opponent, has said she supports Proposition 36.

Chambers and Richardson, both Democrats, have levied accusations against each other as they head into the November general election.

Richardson is mounting a political comeback after losing a reelection bid for the House of Representatives when the House Ethics Committee found in 2012 that there was substantial reason to believe she misused government resources by illegally compelling her congressional staff to perform campaign work and obstructing an investigation into the matter.

Richardson said she has accepted responsibility for making errors and has since improved her management skills.