Bail reduced for woman charged with threatening City Council
A Kern County Superior Court judge on Tuesday reduced the bail of a woman charged with threatening to kill members of the Bakersfield City Council and other officials at last week’s meeting.
Riddhi Patel, 28, is charged with 10 counts of threatening with intent to terrorize and eight counts of threatening public officials after her comments at the April 10 meeting.
She was no longer listed as being in Kern County Sheriff’s custody Tuesday night.
The hearing earlier Tuesday, which Patel’s parents and loved ones attended, was to discuss whether the source of Patel’s bail was legitimate.
Patel’s defense attorney, Jacob Evans from the Kern County Public Defender’s Office, assured the bail money was not felonious. Judge David Wolf agreed.
The prosecutor, Chief Deputy District Attorney Ken Russell, asked the judge to set no bail for Patel. Russell said Patel’s threats show she is an extreme risk to public safety and she is a flight risk.
Patel said at the City Council meeting: “You guys want to criminalize us with metal detectors — we’ll see you at your house, we’ll murder you.”
Evans said Patel does not have a criminal history and recommended lowering bail for Patel. Wolf told Patel that his decision had to balance her constitutional rights with her potential to be a flight risk.
Wolf said he found Patel’s comments during the City Council meeting to be “disturbing and disappointing” and said it goes to the “heart of our democracy.” Although he does not condone her behavior during the City Council meeting, he said her statements seemed to be in the heat of the moment rather than a planned verbal attack.
Wolf reduced Patel’s bail to $500,000 from the original $1 million.
After posting bail, Patel will be under level three supervision, the highest level of pretrial supervision. She was ordered by the judge not to leave the state of California and to appear at all her court hearings.
At her arraignment Friday, at which she pleaded not guilty, she was also ordered to stay 500 yards away from the
homes, businesses and schools of the people listed in the complaint, as well as City Hall North and South.
Wolf said he took the charges seriously and recommended that Patel take these conditions seriously as well.
“You’ve got an opportunity to prove to me that you are who I think you are,” Wolf said.
During her comments at the City Council meeting, Patel referenced the new security measures added to City Hall before the March 27 meeting, which included bag checks and metal detectors. Patel has been an activist in the community regarding many issues; most recently she has advocated for the council to pass a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
The charges were filed for threatening Mayor Karen Goh and City Council members Andrae Gonzales, Bruce Freeman, Ken Weir, Manpreet Kaur and Patty Gray; they were also filed for city manager Christian Clegg, city attorney Ginny Gennaro, city clerk Julie Drimakis and assistant city clerk Sara Ortega, according to the compliant sent by the Kern County District Attorney’s Office.
Councilmen Bob Smith and Eric Arias were not named as victims in the complaint because they did not feel threatened by Patel’s statement, said Daniela Gonzaga, the public information officer for the DA’s Office.
In an email to The Californian, Evans wrote that it is important to consider the nuanced constitutional right Patel has to free speech.
“We all have a constitutional right to free speech, and there is hardly any speech more constitutionally-protected than political speech made at a public hearing of a political body about a controversial matter,” Evans wrote. “Whether the speech relates to the security measures in the City Council’s lobby or adding her voice to a global international concern, Bakersfield is her polis and we should all champion the right of every person to exercise their many First Amendment rights.
“A true threat is not protected speech, but it doesn’t take a lot of effort to recognize that a true threat, one carefully calculated to place the victim in substantial fear for their immediate safety, is very different from the temerity of an intemperate, frustrated, and indignant protest. Many people saw this ‘threat’ for what it was and did not think it was credible, specific, immediate, unconditional, or the other features which would have made it anything other than constitutionally-protected speech. Ms. Patel is passionate about many political causes and she is well-known in these circles for being an outspoken advocate, but never for being a violent one.”
The DA’s Office will not comment on the case, Gonzaga said.
According to a social media post Sunday from the Center on Race, Poverty & The Environment, Patel was terminated from her job at the center.
Patel is scheduled for her pre-preliminary hearing on April 24.