CHULA VISTA, Calif. – In a lengthy court filing, the husband of missing Chula Vista mother Maya Millete argues that his treatment by police, portrayal in local media and threats from the public have created a “toxic environment” for him and his children during the nearly six months of her disappearance.
The comments come in a nearly 80-page legal response to the gun violence restraining orders that were filed against him last month.
In the document filed with the San Diego County Superior Court and reviewed by FOX 5, Larry Millete requests to get a number of the guns returned to him. Police confiscated many of them last month while serving a search warrant at the family’s home.
He also questioned the way police served that warrant in the first place, claiming the Chula Vista Police Department pulled him over outside their jurisdiction on Interstate 5 and held him for six hours.
“They refused to allow me to go home to be with my children and parents during the search and told me that they will arrest me if I will go home that very moment,” he wrote in the filings. “They also refused to allow me to speak to my lawyer. So, I was detained for 6 hours and was not allowed to go home until midnight. The peace officers searched my house, broke and destroyed bedroom door and walls, and left our house in chaotic and disturbing state that horrified my children, parents and me.”
As the months have passed and the search for Maya has gained national attention, Larry states he has received “threatening, angry, insulting, accusatory, malicious and hateful messages” from people watching media coverage, including those featuring remarks from Maya’s family.
“I wish he could just come forward and tell us he has nothing to do with my sister’s disappearance,” Maya’s sister, Maricris Drouaillet, told FOX 5 in May. “I’m still praying. I’m hoping he doesn’t have anything to do with her disappearance.”
“My wife’s family and their attorney have been appearing on television uttering statements implying and highly suggesting to the public and the media that I am to be blamed for her six-month long disappearance. I am not responsible for her disappearance and I have fully cooperated with the police investigation,” Larry writes.
“The Chula Vista Police Department spokeswoman said there was no indication of foul play … It is our continued prayer that my wife will come home. In fact, the Christmas tree that she decorated last Christmas is still standing in our living room.”
A court date is now set for June 22, when Larry hopes to get his guns back. He references a recent California judge’s ruling to overturn the state’s 30-year-old assault weapons ban, which he claims legalizes two of the guns that police took from his house.
Larry says the guns are needed for protection for his family after receiving threats via text, via messages left on his doorstep and letters delivered through the mail. Some of those messages included in the filings read:
- “Where is Maya.”
- “Where is your wife. Not looking too good for you.”
- “Why’d you kill her Larry.”
- “Larry, you coward. Tell us where she is. We all know you did it! No Valentine’s Day for you.”
“It is … the desire of my heart to protect and defend my children, my wife, my parents, myself, my home, from this dangerous, toxic environment and people,” Larry writes.
FOX 5 reached out to him Wednesday for any further comment on the document and received this text message back:
“My response was intended for the court system only. Just wondering how [these] kind of reports assisted in finding my wife Maya making our lives better?”
