Police / Fire

County district attorney will not file charges on supervisor threat claim

Bea Gonzales said she is not disappointed with the outcome.
Supervisor Bea Gonzales during the July 27, 2021 Board of Supervisor meeting. Photo by Noe Magaña.
Supervisor Bea Gonzales during the July 27, 2021 Board of Supervisor meeting. Photo by Noe Magaña.

The San Benito County District Attorney’s Office told BenitoLink it will not file charges against a San Benito County resident who sent a message to Supervisor Bea Gonzales following a Aug. 25 vote to adopt a testing policy for unvaccinated county employees. 

“The District Attorney’s Office has reviewed the case and we find that there is insufficient evidence to support the filing of criminal charges,” Assistant District Attorney Ellen Campos said.

The text message sent to Gonzales on her supervisor number read, “You cannot take away people’s rights to choose what they put into their own bodies. That’s acting like a dictator! One of these days someone is going to do something to you that you don’t want done, and at that time you will remember what you have done today.”

Gonzales said she was not disappointed in the outcome and that her intention of reporting the message was to have it on the record and allow law enforcement to determine if the message was a threat. She added she initially was not going to report it but was advised to do so. 

“No harm no foul,” Gonzales said. 

 

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Noe Magaña

Noe Magaña is BenitoLink Co-Editor and Content Manager. He joined BenitoLink as reporter intern and was soon brought on staff as a BenitoLink reporter. He also experiments with videography and photography. He is a San Benito High School alumnus with a bachelor's in journalism from San Jose State and a Liberal Arts Associate's Degree from Gavilan College. Noe also attended San Jose City College and was the managing editor for the City College Times, the school's newspaper. He was a reporter and later a copy editor for San Jose State's Spartan Daily. He is a USC Center for Health Journalism 2020 California Fellow.