Woman given dog-leash warning allegedly drives car into park worker

A woman who was warned for not leashing her dog at Eaton Canyon Nature Center in Pasadena allegedly got in her car and struck the Los Angeles County park employee who spoke to her, leaving the victim with injuries to her legs.

The woman, Arune Kavaliauskaite, 28, a resident of Altadena, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, according to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Parks Bureau. The county worker, who was not named by the Sheriff’s Department, is a parks recreational service leader and was released from a hospital hours after the Friday incident.

The Sheriff’s Department said Kavaliauskaite was warned three times by the county worker after the woman’s dog was spotted running without a leash at the nature center at 1750 N. Altadena Drive.

After the third warning, the worker called her office for help after Kavaliauskaite allegedly became hostile. Kavaliauskaite then grabbed her dog and got into her car, the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

“The victim was standing a short distance away from the vehicle taking a picture of Ms. Kavaliauskaite in the vehicle for future identification. Ms. Kavaliauskaite accelerated forward with the vehicle into the victim striking her in the legs and knocking her back into a parked vehicle,” the statement said.

Kavaliauskaite then allegedly fled.

After the 3 p.m. incident at the nature center, sheriff’s deputies arrested Kavaliauskaite at her home later that evening, and she was held on $30,000 bail. A court date was scheduled for Tuesday in Superior Court in Pasadena.