EHT man convicted of animal abuse jailed in attacks on girlfriend

An Egg Harbor Township man previously convicted of torturing a cat and threatening a man with a gun is back in jail after he allegedly attacked his girlfriend a day after fleeing a motor vehicle stop.

Michael Ciarla, 32, was living in Galloway Township in 2021, when he held an airsoft gun to the back of a bar patron’s head and cocked it outside the Hi-Point Pub in Absecon.

Months later, he was back in jail after he slammed his now-ex-girlfriend’s kitten in a door so many times that the young cat’s legs were detached from the rest of its skeleton, the judge was told at his sentencing in 2023.

Ciarla pleaded guilty to both of those cases in exchange for a four-year prison sentence. A year and five months later, he was paroled from a halfway house.

It appears he went nearly a year with no issues.

Then, on March 4, police were called to the TD Bank in Galloway Township, where Ciarla was found slashing his girlfriend’s tires, according to the charges.

He then fled in his black Ford Mustang.

Ciarla was arrested, and released two days later with conditions that included no contact with the victim.

He was charged again April 6, when Egg Harbor Township police were called to the scene of a fight that resulted in Ciarla being charged with assaulting a man and a woman.

The incident began when Ciarla and his girlfriend — the subject of the judge’s no contact order — got into an argument, and she left, one of the victims told police.

Ciarla then got into a fight with a man there, beating the unnamed victim to the point that an unnamed woman intervened. Ciarla wound up striking the woman in the face, leaving a black eye, according to the report.

He was charged on a summons, and released.

Then just after 11 p.m. May 12, a Brigantine police officer attempted to stop Ciarla in his Mustang aft4er finding both car’s registration and Ciarla’s driver’s license were expired, according to the charges.

Rather than stop, Ciarla allegedly moved into the other lane and sped up. The police officer hit 100 mph trying to close the distance, but when Ciarla went faster, the chase was terminated for safety protocols, according to the report.

The next night, Atlantic City police arrested Ciarla after they were called to the Wonder Bar for an assault.

Video surveillance showed him strike his girlfriend in the face and then throw an object through her windshield, Assistant Prosecutor Alexandria Peters told the judge.

Defense attorney John Bjorklund said he was told the alleged victim wrote a letter to the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office saying she did not want to pursue charges and that her windshield was fixed.

Peters said her office had not received a letter but that they did have confirmation Ciarla gave the woman $650 for a new windshield.

Ciarla should be eligible for the Veterans Diversion Program, as a U.S. Army veteran, Bjorklund said, adding that he still is a member of the reserves.

But his status was not clear. At his sentencing in 2023, Ciarla’s then-attorney told the judge that he had been a member of the U.S. National Reserve and that he still would have his military career if not for alcohol.

Ciarla recently posted an old photo of himself in uniform on his Facebook page, where the alleged victim tagged him a few days ago in a video of them at the beach with two children.

Ciarla now is employed as a roofer and a member of Local 30, Bjorklund said, arguing for release.

The public safety assessment used to help determine whether a defendant should be released pretrial under bail reform suggested Ciarla be detained, and Judge Dorothy Garrabrant agreed.

“This defendant has a penchant for resolving domestic disputes with violence,” she said, in ordering him held in jail.

The judge also found that Ciarla violated his monitoring for the earlier incident when he allegedly slashed his girlfriend’s tires.

He remains in the Atlantic County Justice Facility.