AnonymousBy the Department of Justice
A Kern County man charged with making threatening telephone calls last year, including to a Planned Parenthood office on the day the United States Supreme Court overturned its Roe v. Wade decision, has been arraigned in federal court, the Justice Department announced today.
Nishith Tharaka Vandebona, 34, currently of Bakersfield, but who lived in Camarillo during the alleged offenses, is charged with three misdemeanor counts of threatened forcible intimidation regarding the obtaining and provision of reproductive health services under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Vandebona also is charged with two felony counts of transmitting threatening communications in interstate commerce to another organization in Ventura County.
Vandebona pleaded not guilty late Wednesday afternoon to the charges against him and a May 30 trial date was scheduled. A federal magistrate judge ordered Vandebona jailed without bond.
“Death threats are never acceptable regardless of what a person believes,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “No one should be threatened with death or bodily harm simply because they provide health services or work for a nonprofit. This indictment serves as a warning that there will be significant repercussions especially for anyone seeking to intimidate those seeking and providing reproductive health services.”
“The Constitution gives each of us broad free speech rights, but using death threats to bully individuals or attempt to terrorize others will lead to criminal charges, as evidenced in this indictment,” said Donald Alway, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The use of violence to intimidate an individual from exercising their rights cannot be tolerated in a free and civil society.”
According to the indictment returned on March 29 and unsealed Wednesday, from February to June of 2022, Vandebona used an internet application to create anonymous telephone numbers to make the threatening calls.
During the spring of 2022, there was news coverage that the Supreme Court was considering overturning Roe, its 1973 decision that recognized a constitutional right to abortion, after an initial draft of the new opinion was leaked.
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court published a decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe and ruled that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.
That day, using an anonymous number, Vandebona left a voicemail message containing death threats with Planned Parenthood California Central Coast, a Santa Barbara-based reproductive health services organization, the indictment alleges.
On June 25, 2022, Vandebona allegedly called Planned Parenthood Los Angeles and spoke with a call center specialist. According to the indictment, Vandebona said, “I’m calling to let you know that I’m going to come in there and kill all of you, including your staff and your security. You got it? You’re overdue for an attack.”
Within an hour, Vandebona allegedly telephoned Planned Parenthood Los Angeles again and made several death threats, including “I’m gonna come in there and murder your staff.”
Prior to the alleged threats to the Planned Parenthood facilities, Vandebona allegedly called in a bomb threat in February 2022 to the office of Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS), a Ventura-based non-profit organization that advocates for “zero population growth,” primarily through immigration restrictions.
Vandebona allegedly used anonymous numbers he obtained from the internet to make threatening phone calls to CAPS. In one of the calls, he said, “I’m gonna come in there and kill all of you, dude. Be careful.”
In another call to CAPS in February 2022, Vandebona said, “I’m gonna come in there, plant a bomb, and kill as many white Americans as possible. You understand that? Servicemen, families, everybody,” according to the indictment.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
If convicted, Vandebona would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years
in federal prison for each count of transmitting threatening communications in interstate commerce, and a statutory maximum sentence of one year in federal prison for each FACE Act count.
The FBI is investigating this matter. The Santa Barbara Police Department, the Santa Monica Police Department, and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office have assisted in this investigation.
Assistant United States Attorneys Frances S. Lewis and Julius J. Nam of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section are prosecuting this case.
Anyone who has information about incidents of violence, threats, and obstruction that target a patient or provider of reproductive health services or damage and destruction of reproductive health care facilities, should report that information to the FBI at www.tips.fbi.gov.
For more information about clinic violence, and the Department of Justice’s efforts to enforce FACE Act violations, please visit www.justice.gov/crt/national-task-force-violence-against-reproductive-health-care-providers.
I’ll venture to guess that the guilty party was not a registered democrat.
Likely.
Fact 1 – He’s a wacko extremist.
Fact 2 – All this Republican blaming we’re seeing today is just plain dumb.
Are ALL republicans like this guy? Are you thinking he is a normal, average representative of a Republican in the US? Should we wait for a registered democrat (who’s a similar wacko) to do something crazy and then all the Republicans can chime in with fingers pointing, and start another online fight about crazy people, in the name of R’s vs. D’s? Get away from the political blaming, folks. You know who you are.
Wait for it…someone is about to downvote me (I don’t care, but do notice) and claim that all I ever say is anti-Newsom and pro law enforcement so I must be a wacko Republican right? To clarify, I don’t care what party someone’s from. I’m not a Republican. Got it?? I feel Newsom’s really damaging our community (and state) with his ‘affordable housing mandate’ that’s causing us to build beyond our environmental means.
I’m guessing this guy is vehemently Pro-life because he’s been indoctrinated into a religion, some religion, which he’s taken way off course into a personal crusade to protect the “unborn”. And now he’s making bomb threats, etc.
“Are ALL republicans like this guy? ” – No one said that anywhere.
Basic – Yada Yada Yada, Odds are he owns a red hat.
Assuming is the word you’re looking for. And the vote complaints are sounding a bit desperate pal.
And I wasn’t quoting anyone. Think about it. I’m asking questions. Trying to figure out people’s points, if they have one. Reasoning. Stuff like that. The quoting thing isn’t working for you Sac. Lose it. Think big picture rather than nitpicky attempts to corner someone and earn some upvotes when there’s nothing there.
Noone compared all of the Republicans to this guy. However, the Republican party allows these people to exist, and people like VOR defend them.
But Republicans ARE the party against reproductive freedom. Yes, I blame and detest Republicans for their stance.
” I don’t care what party someone’s from. I’m not a Republican. ” This guy could be funny but I don’t feel he’s trying hard enough
BASICINFO805 Fact 2 – All this Republican blaming we’re seeing today is just plain dumb.
Who is blaming Republicans for anything? I mean January 6th was only a peaceful protest. It’s perfectly ok to send fake electoral slates to congress if you don’t like the democratic outcome of an election – right? I mean the majority of women in this country really don’t want the right to an abortion. Minorities and marginalized communities are perfectly fine with being discriminated against. I find it so amusing that the “F YOUR FEELINGS” Repuglican crowd is all of a sudden very over-sensitive about how they are perceived for pushing their oppressive and bigoted ethno-Christian belief system.
General tree, who is defending this guy here? He’s clearly disturbed. No one wants that. That’s what “wacko” means.
Alright, I’ll go again.
I completely agree that if you’re watching/reading a bunch of social media crap all the time that is a huge problem. It is fuel for the fire.
I don’t even follow ‘social media’, so don’t criticize me for someone else’s crime. I don’t give a hoot about ‘social media’. I think for myself about how I treat people and how I’d like to be treated. I think about things like effort, ethics, and how to make an honest living. And also please don’t try and loop me in with this guy’s philosophies on life. Not even close.
For me, MSN and Fox are equally lame, as examples. In general ‘the news’ people tend to read completely sucks, and Im not even talking about the stuff this guy was probably tapped into. Garbage, I’d guess.
Are you still thinking I voted for Trump, wear a red hat, and support the insurrection?
“He’s clearly disturbed.” – That’s a round about way of deflecting from the real problem: extreme right wing lies being pushed as fact on right wing media. No way to tell he is mentally “disturbed.” The only “clear” thing is he was influenced by said media.
It’s similar to dismissing mass shooters as “disturbed” and thereby ignoring the one thing, the ONLY thing, that allowed them to kill masses of people within seconds.
So, by blowing this off as just some lone “whacko” ignores the real fuel behind the fire in most of these acts of violence/threats of violence: hateful, dehumanizing rhetoric.
“so don’t criticize me for someone else’s crime.” – I never did. No one did.
“I think for myself”…. “please don’t try and loop me in” …… “For me,”…… “Are you still thinking I voted” —- Hey, psst….. no one is talking about YOU. This is about the right wing nut to did this. I don’t think you are a MAGA person for what it’s worth, but you’re also not the subject of this conversion.
I worked at the targeted Planned Parenthood for 16 years in the 1990s-2000s when 7 clinic staff and physicians were murdered and a dozen more Americans were severely injured by “pro-life” zealots who believed they were saving “babies.” While most Republicans don’t support the murder of abortion providers, many do support the imprisonment of doctors and others who perform abortions. By calling abortion “murder” and fetuses “people” they not only deprive women of a basic human right to control what goes on inside their bodies, but they set the tone for unstable individuals to defend “babies” my violent means. So I view the anti-choice Republican platform as contributing to such threats and real violence with their restrictive laws and hostile rhetoric.
Check his citizenship status. That is a really odd name.
11:24 -Please explain how a statement like that is not blatant racism.
Why does his citizenship matter? Do you suggest we check the status of everyone with a last name you’ve never heard before?