Man accused of threatening city council members

He allegedly sent email saying he would kill several

The man accused of threatening Sacramento city officials refused to come out of his jail cell and attend a court hearing to determine whether he should be released on bail.

Alexander Francis Hoch, 37, is accused of threatening City Councilwomen Katie Valenzuela and Mai Vang and City Council candidate Karina Talamantes, who works for outgoing Councilwoman Angelique Ashby.

This week's hearing was intended for the court to determine whether it should set a bail amount for Hoch. Hoch was taken into custody after refusing to come out of a midtown Sacramento home, where police officers were trying to serve him with an arrest warrant.

Sacramento Superior Court Commissioner Ken Brody said Hoch refused to attend the hearing, which was postponed until Dec. 6. If Hoch refuses to appear in court next month, Brody issued an extraction order that authorizes jail staff to pull Hoch out of his cell and take him to the courtroom.

Prosecutors have charged Hoch with two felony counts of threatening the life of a government official and one felony charge of threatening to commit a crime resulting in death or great bodily injury stemming from reported incidents on Nov. 10.

Last week, Superior Court Judge Kenneth C. Meimemeier granted protective orders against Hoch. The court documents instruct Hoch to stay 100 yards away from Valenzuela, Vang and Talamantes, along with Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Ashby, who ran for a state Senate seat in the November election.

Documents filed in court in support of a restraining order request allege that Hoch had sent harassing messages for months to Valenzuela, Vang, Talamantes and Ashby. The messages escalated Nov. 10 when Hoch allegedly emailed Valenzuela a death threat.

“I'm going to kill you, Andrea, Anthony, karina and steinbergg… you have to f—-ing kill me,” Hoch wrote in the email, submitted to the court.

That email prompted Valenzuela to contact the Sacramento Police Department, she wrote in a request for the order.

“I do not know who `Andrea' and `Anthony' are, but I immediately understood `karina”` to be Karina Talamantes and `steinberg' to be Mayor Steinberg,” Valenzuela wrote in submitted court documents.

The documents also alleged that Hoch previously visited places where he was likely to find Talamantes, a Sacramento County Board of Education member who is Ashby's chief of staff. She ran in the Nov. 8 election to represent the council's 3rd District.

Talamantes said the “harassment, threats, and fear” for her safety began in June, when Hoch started contacting her through social media, emails and tracking her whereabouts. She said she has increased security at her home, and made her family and friends aware of Hoch.

“It's unacceptable that I have to fear for my own safety,” Talamantes said in a statement. “More must be done to protect women who choose to run for office and participate in the governance structure of our country.”

A hearing for the court to determine whether to make the restraining order permanent has been scheduled on Dec. 9.

Sacramento police arrested Hoch after a standoff that began in the afternoon on Nov. 12 at a home in the 3000 block of C Street in East Sacramento. Officers were there to serve a warrant for Hoch's arrest. Police said Hoch refused to come out of the home, so SWAT team officers ultimately “deployed a chemical agent” into the home. Hoch then came out and surrendered.