Christy Mihos facing assault charge stemming from incident last year

By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff

Former gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos is facing an assault charge in connection with an incident last summer in which he allegedly pushed his wife inside their West Yarmouth home on Great Island, police said.

Yarmouth Deputy Police Chief Steven G. Xiarhos confirmed Tuesday night in an email that Mihos, 63, has been charged with assault and battery and is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 7 in Barnstable District Court.

Yarmouth police said in February that they were seeking the charge against Mihos after a thorough investigation into the incident, which occurred last July 7.

His wife, Andrea Mihos, had reported a separate incident that occurred in Florida in February, but she ultimately did not pursue charges in that case.

According to a police report in the Florida case based on statements by Andrea Mihos, the couple were driving home from dinner on Feb. 20 when they began to argue over “pre-existing marital problems” that included his “addiction to hiring prostitutes, strippers, and porn stars for sex.”

At that point, Christy Mihos’s behavior became “erratic and belligerent,” Andrea Mihos told police, according to the report. She said that as the argument escalated, he husband made inferences that she could “easily disappear,” or be hurt or killed, the report said.

Andrea Mihos then told police she tried to record the conversation on her phone but that her husband grabbed it and threw it at her, striking her in the lip.

She said he then picked up the phone and threw it out the window, the report stated.

Mihos’s lawyer, Edward P. Ryan Jr., said Tuesday night that Mihos denies ever assaulting his wife.

“This action by his wife is nothing more than an attempt to gain an advantage in divorce proceedings,” Ryan said. “She has accused him of squandering family finances on prostitutes and call girls; this is a complete fabrication. This woman has been in charge of the family finances for a number of years and her allegations about Mr. Mihos squandering money are completely untrue.”

Ryan said he is confident Mihos will be acquitted. He contended that Andrea Mihos is the one who has spent the couple’s money extravagantly, including a nearly $30,000 expenditure for a single pocketbook.

Andrea Mihos could not immediately be reached for comment. She said last week that her allegations are not related to their divorce proceedings, the Associated Press reported. Her attorney said he is confident she’ll be “well-served” by the court, according to the AP.

“I am now seeking the proper course of treatment to make myself a better husband, father, and person,” Mihos said in a statement issued in March. “But I am not the perfect person and have made mistakes in judgment that have hurt the ones I love most.”

Mihos spent more than $4 million of his own money in two unsuccessful campaigns for governor of Massachusetts, as an independent in 2006 and as a Republican in 2010. He made millions through his chain of Christy’s convenience stores and served on the board of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, where he forged a reputation as an outspoken critic of the Big Dig project and its ballooning costs.

In his 2010 bid for governor, the Globe reported, his campaign bounced checks. At the Republican convention that year, he failed to win the 15 percent delegate support needed to qualify for the primary election.

The Office of Campaign and Political Finance fined Mihos $70,000 for several violations, the largest penalty ever imposed on a candidate in Massachusetts.