SALINAS — Monterey County Supervisors Luis Alejo and Simon Salinas have filed restraining orders against a Carmel man who reportedly left threatening voicemail messages Monday morning full of racial epithets and threats at their offices.
The caller, identified as Peter Channing Wells, 57, of Carmel, is reportedly upset at a proposal by Alejo and Salinas to allow voting at age 16.
Salinas said he is used to receiving angry calls as a lawmaker, but added that none have come with threats of physical violence during his 30-year career.
“There is no place in our society for this,” he said. “We want to get the message out that we won’t stand for this type of thing.”
Alejo, who formerly served on the Watsonville City Council as the city’s mayor and as a California Assemblyman, said he closed his office after his staffers listened to the recording.
“It was certainly very disturbing,” Alejo said. “We took it seriously. We closed our doors out of precaution and concern for the staff.”
Among other things, Wells suggested that Alejo should be “put against the wall and shot as a traitor.”
Alejo said that his staffers called the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, which sent out a detective. The office declined to press charges, however.
Alejo said he declined an offer by the MCSO to arrange a meeting with Wells.
Monterey County Sheriff’s Cmdr. John Thornberg said that detectives spent hours investigating the case, and determined that Wells did not indicate intent to carry out a specific action.
“It’s ugly, it’s unpleasant, but after looking at it, it doesn’t rise to the level of criminal threat,” he said.
In 2012, Wells pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon and making criminal threats after he hurled racial epithets and threw a rock at a Hispanic gardener working in a neighbor’s yard, Thornberg said.
Wells is also the subject of a separate restraining order by a man in Carmel, Monterey County Superior Court records showed.
The man, who asked not to be identified, said he was working in a grocery store 25 years ago, and that Wells became angered when employees refused to put his purchases on a tab.
For unknown reasons, Wells began to call the man earlier this year, variously accusing him of being a drug dealer and making disparaging comments about his mother.
The man was granted a restraining order in March after Wells called him 20 times in a single night, he said.
Alejo said he was disappointed that the sheriff’s office took no action.
“It shows that someone, even with his past hate crime, arrests and current restraining order, can make these kind of serious threats and there are no consequences for him,” he said.
Court records also show that Wells was charged with a felony in 2003, but details on that case were not available.
Wells did not return a call for comment.
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Wells’ voicemail
“I think it’s absolutely traitorous and disgusting how you’re perpetrating Mexico’s wanting to reclaim – reclamation (sic) of California and America. I think you’re a f——- traitor for allowing 16-year-olds to vote, to try to push through a rule — a ballot measure. Hey, they don’t own any property, they don’t have any skin in the game. And it’s all Mexicans you want voting, so to take over our state. I think you’re a f——- traitor and should be put against the wall and shot as a traitor. And whatever millions I have I am going use them to see that you and Simon Sal – you and Alejo – don’t make it to national politics, ‘cause you are f——- dangerous. I mean honestly, are you one of Trump’s minions, or Putin’s things? Honestly, if you like Mexico so much, go the f—- back there. I think you’re a f——- dangerous a——.”
