Encinitas City Councilmember Luke Shaffer was ordered Thursday to stand trial on charges of assault and hit-and-run in connection with a parking dispute between himself and a city resident, but a judge reduced the felony assault count to a misdemeanor and dismissed another charge related to allegations that he used his position on the city council to threaten the resident.

Shaffer, 45, is accused of reversing his truck into the resident's trash cans in July, damaging a trash bin and striking the resident's hands in the process.

The dispute allegedly began after Shaffer moved the man's trash bins in order to park his truck there so he could go to the nearby beach.

When the resident moved his bins back, Shaffer allegedly pushed a bin over, then threw trash into the man's face, according t

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