Former Cal Poly student avoids more jail time over Facebook threat
October 18, 2016
A former Cal Poly student who sent a death threat late last year to the leader of the pro-diversity group SLO Solidarity has accepted a plea deal that will allow him to avert spending anymore time behind bars. Charles Raymond Bird had been facing a maximum sentence of six years in state prison. [KSBY]
Bird, who has been expelled from Cal Poly, sent the death threat to Matt Klepfer, the leader of SLO Solidarity and the Queer Student Union, via a Facebook profile under the name Mordecai Shekelburg. Klepfer and other members of SLO Solidarity were the targets of the threat. The Facebook message also included a jab at Jews:
“The day of the rope will be coming soon, and you people will be the first to go. If you don’t like how it is in this town, you can go somewhere else. We have a nice thing going here, and if you fuck with that you’re going to have some pretty angry young white man on your hands. Kike.”
Prosecutors charged Bird with a felony count of criminal threats and a hate crime enhancement. Bird pleaded not guilty in January.
In September, Bird reached a deal with the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office in which he agreed to plead no contest to two misdemeanor charges in exchange for prosecutors dropping the criminal threats count and the hate crime enhancement. Bird pleaded no contest to charges of making an annoying or threatening phone call and interference with constitutional rights by intimidation or threat based on characteristics of the victim.
As a result of the plea deal, Bird received two years of probation. He must also must complete 200 hours of community service.
Additionally, if Bird complete his probation without breaking any other laws, the conviction of interfering with constitutional rights may be dismissed.
Bird was believed to have sent the threatening message on the night of Nov. 30, 2015. University police arrested him on Dec. 4.
As part of his plea deal, Bird received credit for time served. It is unclear, though, how much time he spent in San Luis Obispo County Jail.
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