Malibu City Councilmember Skylar Peak was arrested July 11 and spent several days at a psychiatric hospital on an involuntary stay after a run-in with security guards at Point Dume Plaza, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and multiple media reports. Security guards at the shopping center allege that Peak, wearing a black speedo swimsuit, was screaming and overturning chairs in the center’s patio area at approximately 10:45 p.m. on July 11. The guards confronted Peak, who then threatened them with one half of a pair of scissors as a weapon, according to testimony the guards gave the sheriff’s department, Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Steve Whitmore told The Malibu Times.
But Peak, a third-generation Point Dume resident, told the Los Angeles Times he was going for a run as part of a late-night workout. Peak says he cut through the shopping center parking lot, hit his leg on a chair and cut his toe on some broken glass. The chair overturned and he yelled out in pain, according to Peak.
Peak says he left the parking lot but was pursued by the security guards, one of whom he says struck him twice in the chest. Peak said he was carrying scissors in order to cut some rope that had “become caught in a personal watercraft,” according to the story, and when the guards pursued him he separated the scissors and told them he was running him.
The guards called the sheriff’s department, which responded to a report of “battery and brandishing a weapon in a threatening manner,” Whitmore said.
Deputies arrested Peak at his Point Dume residence. Multiple reports stated he was taken to Del Amo Hospital, a psychiatric evaluation facility in Torrance, to be held for a 72-hour evaluation. Peak told the Los Angeles Times he spent five days at the facility because there was not a patient advocate at the facility on the weekend, and he checked himself out on Tuesday.
Peak has said his rights were violated by the security guard he says assaulted him and that he plans to press charges.
Peak, 27, finished first in the April City Council elections and is the youngest person ever elected to the Malibu City Council. He made national headlines in 2008 when he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a paparazzo attempting to photograph actor Matthew McConaughey while surfing near Point Dume.