Woman accused of ‘vile,’ racist threat arrested at Sacramento community college
A woman accused of making racist threats against the president of American River College was arrested Tuesday evening after an incident at Sacramento City College, district officials said.
The former student, who recently had a temporary restraining order granted against her barring her from all Los Rios Community College District campuses, was detained at the latter site shortly after she called Los Rios Police Department dispatchers and “made a number of claims, all of them as yet unsubstantiated,” the district said in an email to students around 8:30 p.m.
The district said the former student “recently made a racist and vile threat” against Melanie Dixon, who is Black. Dixon has been the president of American River College since the start of 2021.
Campus police located and arrested the former student at Sacramento City College with the assistance of a custodian, who spotted someone in a restroom after hours and contacted the authorities, according to the email.
The email did not name her, but Capital Public Radio — in a story published hours before Tuesday’s incident and arrest — identified the subject of the restraining order accused of making threats as a woman named Jamie Barnes.
A temporary restraining order sought by Los Rios against Jamie Yvonne Barnes was granted March 3, Sacramento Superior Court records show. The filing lists Dixon as the protected person.
Barnes was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail downtown, then released early Wednesday morning, online booking records show.
Court records also show prosecutors filed misdemeanor charges against Barnes earlier this month and in May 2021, accusing her of making annoying or harassing phone calls. She is due in court late next month for arraignment on the 2021 charges.
The district in Tuesday’s email said none of the former student’s claims made to police dispatchers indicated a threat to the campus or any individual, “this time.”
Capital Public Radio reported that a Sacramento City College professor who heard one of the voice messages left by Barnes said it included statements that all Black students should leave American River College, along with frequent use of a racial slur.
American River College increased its security on campus and for Dixon personally in response to the threats, the American River Current student newspaper reported last week.
Suspect is former teacher with long record of lawsuits
Barnes is a former teacher with an extensive legal history in Sacramento County, court records show.
In 2011, she filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against San Juan Unified School District, where she wrote she had worked as a teacher at various schools starting in 2000. Barnes in her complaint claimed she suffered harassment and discrimination on the basis of her sex and was forced to resign in 2009.
A judge ruled in favor of San Juan Unified in 2012, court records show.
From 2011 to 2012, she filed 13 defamation lawsuits against a range of plaintiffs including then-Mayor Kevin Johnson, then-Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully, a Presbyterian church in East Sacramento, the California Teachers Association, American River College, Sacramento State, a number of K-12 districts as well as private schools, and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.
The latter suit involving the Vallejo amusement park was moved to Solano County Superior Court. After a judge dismissed that lawsuit, she sued the court for defamation.
The defamation lawsuits were all either dismissed or settled out of court.
Civil court records show three permanent restraining orders were granted against Barnes in 2019: one against the minister of the aforementioned Presbyterian church and two others involving local business owners, all three located in East Sacramento.
This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 8:03 AM.
