Orangevale man accused of leading white supremacist group has gun order extended for year
Andrew Casarez was only joking, his attorney said of the racist and anti-Semitic slurs and threats he posted and aired as online alter-ego “Vic Mackey.”
He referred to the Black parishioners gunned down in their Charleston, South Carolina, church as “nine n------.” He offered tips to listeners of his podcast on how to spread fear at a Jewish temple in his Orangevale neighborhood with well-placed hate flyers.
“Watch,” his voice was heard on one recording Thursday in Sacramento, “the hysteria will ensue. I assure you these (people) will be very scared and very sad.”
A Sacramento judge wasn’t laughing. Casarez cannot possess a firearm for one year, Sacramento Superior Court Judge David De Alba ruled Thursday extending the temporary gun violence restraining order handed down in July against the alleged online hate leader.
“No one has the right to instill fear in other members of the community or act insidiously toward a targeted group such as a Jewish community or an African-American community. ... These are not jokes,” De Alba said in his ruling from the bench, “He shouldn’t have the privilege of owing a firearm.”
Casarez and his father, Arturo, listened with counsel Alan Donato at his offices. Casarez invoked his rights against self-incrimination and declined questioning from De Alba.
Donato argued Sacramento County Sheriff’s officials created a circus with its search warrant of the Orangevale home Casarez shares with his parents, then used that to strip Casarez of his gun and free-speech rights.
“These are opinions, not threats. Expressing an opinion, even if it’s offensive, is not illegal.”
Donato said Casarez “had been butchered by the media” and lost his job as a delivery driver once his identity was exposed. Casarez should’ve received a warning from sheriff’s deputies.
“He’s a law-abiding citizen. He has been warned, he has respect for the process,” Donato said.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Darryl Meadows, supervisor of the department’s hate crimes detail, said the Casarez family had requested deputies to patrol his neighborhood out of safety concerns. Meadows said his department received the same request from the synagogue after getting word of Casarez’s podcasts.
But sheriff’s investigators and hate group researchers say Casarez is a danger to the community; a hate monger who as “Vic Mackey” promoted and incited anti-Black and Jewish violence in online podcasts and videos. Now that his identity was been exposed, they said they feared the weapon he had could turn threats into action.
He already had a platform, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Nate Grgich. He said investigators felt they had to act.
“The concerns the sheriff had is that this podcast promotes violence against race, creed, color, religion and he is provoking people across the nation, groups across the U.S. who are white supremacists,” Grgich said, adding Casarez talked about Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof and the mass shootings at a Parkland, Florida, high school and at a Pittsburgh synagogue, saying Casarez said he wished he could carry out similar attacks.
“We didn’t want to look like other (law enforcement) agencies that missed the boat” and missed signs of potential danger.
Casarez has not been charged with a crime but has been eyed by investigators for his alleged connections to the vandalizing of an Orangevale synagogue near his home in 2017 and 2018.
Deputies serving the July search warrant found Casarez’s legally purchased gun but also T-shirts bearing a hate group’s logo and a poster of Roof, the teenage white supremacist who gunned down nine at the South Carolina church in 2015.
Sheriff’s investigators say Casarez is a devotee of Roof’s, attracting legions of followers of his “Bowl Patrol” podcasts, named for Roof’s bowl-style haircut.
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 3:14 PM.
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