Ventura County man sentenced for making threatening calls to California healthcare facilities
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Nishith Tharaka Vandebona, a Ventura County man who plead guilty in June of this year to making threatening calls to healthcare facilities last year, was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
Vandebona has been in custody since June 12, 2023, after pleading 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's Entrances Act as well as one felony count of transmitting threatening communications through interstate commerce detail the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
“Seeking to intimidate others through death threats is unacceptable,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “Today’s sentence shows that there will be consequences for those who threaten violence against workers at reproductive health facilities in violation of federal law.”
In February of 2022, Vandebona called in a bomb threat at the offices of Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS), a Ventura-based non-profit advocating "zero population growth" primarily through immigration restrictions, detail the U.S. Attorney's Office.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Vandebona used anonymous numbers obtained from the internet to make multiple calls to CAPS in February stating in one call, “I’m gonna come in there and kill all of you, dude. Be careful” and detailing in another call to CAPS in February of 2022, "I’m gonna come in there, plant a bomb, and kill as many white Americans as possible. You understand that? Servicemen, families, everybody.”
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturning its previous decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) that the U.S. Constitution conferred a right to an abortion within certain parameters.
On the same day as the Dobbs decision, explain the U.S. Attorney's Office, Vandebona used an anonymous number to leave death threats on the answering machine at Planned Parenthood California Central Coast, a Santa Barbara-based healthcare facility.
The following day, June 25 of 2022, Vandebona threatened a call center specialist answering calls for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles stating, "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” relay the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The U.S. Attorney's Office detail that within an hour of the above call, Vandebona called Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles again to issue several additional death threats including, "I’m gonna come in there and murder your staff.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lead the investigation with assistance from the Santa Barbara Police Department, the Santa Monica Police Department, and the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.
“Mr. Vandebona crossed the line from protected speech to criminal activity when he terrorized his ideological adversaries with death threats,” said Donald Alway, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI safeguards the rights of all citizens and, as today's sentencing makes clear, will hold accountable those who threaten or violate the civil rights of others.”
Anyone with information about threats, violent incidents, or obstruction that targets a patient or provider of reproductive health services or damages a reproductive health care facility should report that information to the FBI here.
For more information about the Department of Justice's enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic's Entrances Act, visit here.
