Anonymous
By the Department of Justice
A Ventura County man pleaded guilty [Monday] to federal criminal charges 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.
Nishith Tharaka Vandebona, 34, of Oxnard, but who lived in Camarillo during the offenses, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of threatened forcible intimidation regarding the obtaining and provision of reproductive health services under the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. He also pleaded guilty to one felony count of transmitting threatening communications in interstate commerce.
At [Monday’s] hearing, United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner ordered Vandebona remanded into federal custody.
According to his plea agreement, in February and 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.
Vandebona admitted in his plea agreement that on the same day, using an anonymous number, he left a voicemail message containing death threats with Planned Parenthood California Central Coast, a Santa Barbara-based reproductive health services organization.
On June 25, 2022, Vandebona called Planned Parenthood Los Angeles and spoke with a call center specialist. 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 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 threats to the Planned Parenthood facilities, Vandebona 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 admitted to using 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.”
Judge Klausner scheduled an October 2 sentencing hearing, at which time Vandebona will face a statutory maximum sentence of one year in federal prison for the FACE Act count and up to five years in federal prison for the transmitting threatening communications in interstate commerce count.
The FBI investigated 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.
Thank you FBI & federal prosecutors.
(The FACE Act was signed into law in May 1994.)
I worked at PP in the mid-90’s when the Santa Maria clinic was firebombed, after which all central coast clinics got bullet-resistant plastic and numerically-controlled door locks, among other steps.
But we didn’t get phone calls threatening to kill us…
Way to go! Thanks for stopping wannabe terrorists like this!
How ironic that there is a D.O.J. sign instead of a perp photo.
He can get free condoms and prostate care. He should be sending PP donations, not butting in on care for a condition that doesn’t affect those who don’t have wombs. Has he ever coerced or forced a woman into having sex with him? If so, double the donation and cancel access his to Viagra. HE can’t get pregnant. He’s a user/abuser Karen.
Just another hypocritical christian. What a weirdo.
“Two men from Orange County, Calif., including a Marine, have been arrested and are facing federal charges after being accused of using a Molotov cocktail to firebomb a Costa Mesa clinic operated by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America last year, federal authorities said.
The men, Tibet Ergul, 21, of Irvine, and Chance Brannon, 23, of San Juan Capistrano, were arrested on Wednesday morning and charged with using an explosive or fire to damage property, the Justice Department said in a news release.”
But…they were just tourists!
5:22 – Yup, saw that here – https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/us-marine-2nd-man-arrested-federal-charges-stemming-firebombing-planned-parenthood
More domestic Christian terrorists. And here people are so worried about drag queens, rainbows, etc, while we have a very real threat of DEATH at the hands of right wing fanatic terrorists. We have a serious problem in the country.
Umm Nashville wasn’t that long ago… and that wasn’t a threat, it happened. When was the last time a mass shooting, bombing or terrorist attack occurred by a right wing fanatic?
VOICE – yeah yeah whatabout whatabout…. In fact, whatabout Nashville? What do you think you’re on to there?
“When was the last time a mass shooting, bombing or terrorist attack occurred by a right wing fanatic?” – are you seriously asking that? Really? What type you want?
Terrorism against Planned Parenthood (Jan 2023 arson):
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-looking-alleged-arsonist-accused-setting-fire-illinois-planned-rcna66300
White Supremacist Terrorism (May 2022 mass shooting):
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/28/us/buffalo-tops-grocery-shooting-payton-gendron-plea/index.html
Anti Government Terrorism (2018 pipe bombs in the US Mail):
https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/statement-on-the-fbis-investigation-of-suspicious-packages
Need I continue?
Are you seriously going to sit there and say there is not a serious and very real problem with right wing extremist violence? Your very, very alone in that “theory.”
@Voice.. are you serious?
2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting
2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
2019 El Paso Walmart attack
2021 Jan 6th INSURRECTION!
2022 Q Nightclub Shooting
The Department of Homeland Security has named this a Real and Legitimate Threat: “Likely targets of potential violence include US critical infrastructure, faith-based institutions, individuals or events associated with the LGBTQIA+ community, schools, racial and ethnic minorities, and government facilities and personnel, including law enforcement.”
“Also in March 2023, a RMVE driven by a belief in the superiority of the white race was arrested and charged with allegedly attempting to use an improvised incendiary device to burn down a church in Ohio that was planning to host a drag-themed event.”
“In February 2023, two RMVEs driven by a belief in the superiority of the white race were arrested and are now awaiting trial for plotting an attack against electrical substations in Maryland. These arrests followed a series of recent attacks against electrical infrastructure, which some DVEs have praised and leveraged to call for more attacks on critical infrastructure.”
https://www.dhs.gov/ntas/advisory/national-terrorism-advisory-system-bulletin-november-30-2022
Full List of 26 Republicans Who Refused To Denounce White Supremacy
https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-denounce-white-supremacy-letter-raskin-1786300
How White Supremacy Returned to Mainstream Politics
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/white-supremacy-returned-mainstream-politics/
SBSURFERLIFE – sadly, I think he really is serious.
@OG, no one is stereotyping. These are observations about this particular person, who IS a domestic Christian terrorist and who IS another hypocritical Christian. If you would like fewer hypocritical/domestic terrorist Christians representing your beliefs, feel free to discuss the problem with your brethren.
LOL Sac- You’re always good for a laugh. Please tell me how I “defended domestic terrorism”…
Oh man…. really? OGSB defended domestic terrorism? Surprise, surprise…..
Thank you SEABIRD- So if you’re not stereotyping, how do you KNOW they are a Christian terrorist? I only went through the first dozen or so articles attached to their name and didn’t see anything about religion. What do you know that Google doesn’t? Or do you just have ample time to slide to page 10?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-abortion_violence
“Numerous organizations have also recognized anti-abortion extremism as a form of Christian terrorism.[7]”
And don’t complain that it’s Wikipedia … that [7] reference gives 14 citations supporting the statement. Not that they are even needed–anyone denying that attacks on abortion clinics are done by Christian extremists is blatantly lying.
Don’t play dumb. The only people who attack abortion providers are right wing Christian terrorists … and there are a lot of them: https://www.justice.gov/crt/recent-cases-violence-against-reproductive-health-care-providers
Snicker- You’re joking, right? Did you read your link? It doesn’t say anything about Christian Terrorists… I agree that most Christians are pro-life, but it takes another level to terrorize. It’s like, I have a gun, but I’m not a mass shooter. Or I don’t eat meat except fish.
I’m not joking. You are pathetically dishonest. Over and out.
You’ve already gone down the path of extreme dishonesty and denial. You’re outed and there’s nothing else to say to or about you.
Snicker- Not even going to read Wiki, until I change it with MY opinion first! lol.
I agree people doing this are MOST LIKELY Christian. AND? Do you really want to go down this path?