Chris Leben Arrested on Several Charges; Denies Estranged Wife’s Allegations

Former UFC middleweight Chris Leben was arrested recently in San Diego, Calif., and charged with felony possession of an assault weapon, two counts of criminal trespassing, a felony charge of vandalism, a misdemeanor charge of vandalism, and 11 counts of violating a court order.

Leben’s arrest was first reported by NBC 7 in San Diego, and was verified by a San Diego Sheriff’s Department arrest report.

The arrest stems from a June 8 incident, where Leben allegedly threatened to kill his estranged wife’s (Kaleena Leben) father and attempted to enter her apartment.

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Leben’s ex-wife was issued a restraining order against him. In the request for the order, Kaleena made multiple claims of domestic abuse, and described the June 8 incident.

Kaleena, according to News7, “wrote she awoke around 3 a.m. on June 8 to banging and kicking at her door. Around 4:30 a.m. she woke up to find Leben trying to scale the outside wall of her downtown San Diego high rise to access her apartment via the balcony. Terrified, she says she ran to a neighbor’s apartment and returned to her home the next morning.”

When police investigated the June 8 incident, they found a loaded handgun on Kaleena”s bed.

Kaleena also wrote in the request for the restraint order that her apartment complex’s management alerted her to finding an M16 assault rifle in a maintenance closet at the complex.

Leben has denied the charges, saying the assault rifle was Kaleena’s, not his, and claims he never assaulted her.

“The fact of the matter was I was trying to move out,” Leben told NBC7. “The stress of law school was getting to her and she was physically and emotionally abusive to me. Everyone in the world, everyone knew she was beating me.”

Leben is currently free on a $100,000 bond and is scheduled back in court on Aug. 3.