Features

Man Charged with Misdemeanors In Pacific Center Threats Case

By Judith Scherr
Friday February 23, 2007

A Clayton man was formally arraigned by the Alameda County District Attorney’s office Tuesday, charged with two misdemeanors: making criminal threats to staff at Pacific Center for Human Growth and vandalism at the agency, a support center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. 

Berkeley police said they took Darren Scott, 32, into custody last Friday. He was turned over to them by Concord Police, who had picked the suspect up on unrelated charges. He is free on $12,500 bail. 

Over the past several weeks, the Pacific Center, located at 2712 Telegraph Ave., had received three death threats and experienced one instance of vandalism on Feb. 3, when a man, believed to be the same person making the threats, kicked in glass on the center’s front door. 

Center director Juan Barajas, who was not available for comment, said earlier that the suspect, believed to have been a client of the center in a Walnut Creek youth program, frightened staff because his e-mails targeted youth and referred to Columbine High School, where 12 young people were killed by two classmates in 1999. The suspect also made reference in e-mails to Matthew Shepard, a gay man brutally murdered in Wyoming in 1998, Barajas said. 

Galvan said Berkeley police originally arrested the suspect on felony threat charges, but on Tuesday, the district attorney charged him with misdemeanors. 

Scott will be back in court March 6.