DA: No hate crime charges in San Anselmo mayoral threats case

Hate crime charges will not be filed in a case involving threatening voicemails left for San Anselmo Mayor Brian Colbert, the district attorney's office said this week.

District Attorney Lori Frugoli said while the voicemails were offensive, no laws were broken. The announcement ends a sixmonth investigation into the phone messages, which some town leaders called hateful.

In May, three after-hours messages were left on a town voicemail. The caller used racist language, according to police, indicating displeasure with Colbert and the police department. Colbert, the first Black mayor of the town, has served on the Town Council since 2017.

The voicemails were reported to the Central Marin Police Authority, then to Frugoli's office. The caller, identified as Jared Welty, a town resident, was arrested after a search of his home turned up firearms.

Investigators obtained a gun violence restraining order against him. Welty, 63, was released after two days on bail while the district attorney's office reviewed the case.

Frugoli was pressured in recent months by Colbert and the town's Racial Equity and Social Justice Committee, which wrote a letter to Frugoli asking for an update on the case in August. At the time, Frugoli said she would brief the community in the coming weeks.

In October, with no response from the DA's office, the committee voted to send another letter asking for any information on the investigation. Colbert said he also had not received any update from Frugoli on his case.

In a video posted on the DA website, Frugoli called the use of racist language “reprehensible and disgusting.”

“That kind of hate has no place in our society, and it has no place in Marin County. That is my personal opinion,” she said.

Frugoli said she determined the voicemails were not criminal, after a thorough vetting of the evidence by prosecutors.

“Underlying crimes must be identified in order to qualify the incident as a hate crime, and the incident did not qualify based on state law,” she said.

Frugoli said the U.S. Constitution allows hate speech as long as it does not interfere with the civil rights of others.

“Acts such as insults, name-calling, display of hate materials on private property, display of hate material that doesn't result in property damage and distribution of hate messages in public places are considered hate incidents,” Frugoli said.

Colbert called the decision “terribly disappointing,” and said he feared the decision “sends a terrible signal.”

“If you make racist threats toward a public official in Marin, you can basically do so without almost any consequence,'' he said.

In California, under the Ralph Civil Rights Act, a person's civil rights may be violated if they are subjected to hate violence or the threat of violence based on actual or perceived personal attributes, including sex, race, color or political affiliation.

Frugoli encouraged citizens to report possible hate crimes to local law enforcement agencies and said prosecutors will continue to evaluate reported incidents “to see if underlying criminal behavior was motivated by hate.”

Colbert said he did not seek legal counsel for potential civil rights violations because he did not want the incident to interfere with his public service duties.

“I've spent enough time dealing with this emotionally, focusing on the safety of my family and answering questions from members of the whole community about why the DA couldn't simply provide public updates on the timeline she said she would have,” he said.