Ill Niño’s Cristian Machado Arrested for Domestic Battery

According to information from both the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and the victim notification network VINE, Ill Niño frontman Cristian Machado was arrested in Temecula, CA last Friday, August 9, on charges of domestic battery.

Although more specific details are not currently available, a police report shows that the 45-year-old singer was arrested at 11:23 p.m. on Friday evening and booked into the Southwest Detention Center several hours later. He was released later that afternoon on $5,000 bail, and is due to appear in court again on Monday, October 7.

According to the California penal code, if convicted, Machado could face up to a year in prison and/or a fine of as much as $2,000. Even if he were to receive probation, he could still be made to enter and complete a batterer’s treatment program, do community service, make payments to a battered women’s shelter of up to $5,000, and/or make financial restitutions to the victim. A conviction would also render Machado ineligible for certain forms of employment, and he would lose the right to own or acquire firearms.

A copy of the police report can be viewed below. Although the report spells Machado’s first name “Christian” and not “Cristian,” the date of birth — July 23, 1974 — confirms that the report is, indeed, for the Ill Niño vocalist.

Ill Niño have been embroiled in a legal battle over the band’s name since January, with Dave Chavarri (drums), Lazaro Pina (bass), and Daniel Couto (percussion) on one side and Machado and guitarists Ahrue Luster and Diego Verduzco on the other. Last month, Chavarri and company accused Machado of being a “drug addict and physical abuser” who assaulted his then-fiancée and the eventual mother of his child in 2005 and again just last year. As proof they offered a a restraining order the woman filed against Machado this past December. They also allege that the vocalist missed various child support payments.