Santa Cruz County employees are receiving hostile, and at times racist, phone calls in response to the case of a Kino Springs man accused of the first-degree murder of a
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Since Sheriff’s Deputies arrested George Alan Kelly, staff at the Sheriff’s Office, as well as the county courthouse and main complex, have received aggressive calls
from people sympathetic to Kelly. "It’s just people calling, and, you know, expressing themselves. Cussing us out, basically." Chief Deputy Gerardo Castillo said.
One caller, Castillo said, told him he “sounded Hispanic,” adding: “So I hope your family gets killed.”
A dispatch log shows that the Sheriff’s Office received a report on Wednesday of “harassing” emails and phone calls received at the courthouse.
The callers, Castillo said, are not identifying themselves, and the area codes largely indicate out-of-state phone numbers. None of the calls seemed specific enough to constitute a criminal threat.
“They’ve been very vague,” he said.
If that changes, he said, the Sheriff’s Office would work with federal authorities such as the FBI to further investigate. But for now, the callers seem to be aiming the insults at any individual who happens to answer the phone.