Woman accused of racist threats to American River College president arrested again
A woman accused of making racist threats against the president of American River College was arrested by community college police last week, her second arrest in six days for allegedly violating a temporary restraining order.
The Los Rios Community College District in an email to students Thursday morning said Jamie Yvonne Barnes had been arrested by the Los Rios Police Department on March 21 and was released Wednesday evening from the Sacramento County Main Jail.
The Los Rios Police Department arrest log shows officers arrested Barnes at a location in Fair Oaks about 6 miles away from American River College, on a misdemeanor warrant.
The district’s email said Barnes was “arrested by the Los Rios Police Department for additional violations of the district’s temporary restraining order,” but that authorities “have no evidence that Barnes has returned to any of our campuses/facilities and she was not on any Los Rios campus at the time of her arrest.”
The district sought a temporary restraining order against Barnes, which was granted March 3 in Sacramento Superior Court. The order bars Barnes from Los Rios campuses and property, and it lists Melanie Dixon, president of American River College in Carmichael, as the protected person.
Los Rios in statements has accused Barnes of making “vile and racist threats” against Dixon, who is Black.
Police arrested Barnes at Sacramento City College on March 15, after she called dispatchers and made a series of claims determined to be “unsubstantiated,” the district said in an earlier email to students. She was booked into the downtown jail that evening and released early the following morning.
Barnes appeared in Sacramento Superior Court on Wednesday morning prior to her second release from jail. She is due back in court April 20 regarding misdemeanor charges from 2021 of making annoying or harassing phone calls.
A hearing is also set for April 22 to determine whether to upgrade the restraining order from temporary to permanent.
Thursday’s email from Los Rios officials said Barnes’ release from jail was “unfortunately out of the hands of the LRPD and Los Rios” and that they “continue to advocate for the strongest possible consequences based on her actions to date.”
The district also called upon anyone who sees Barnes at any Los Rios campus or facility to contact campus police.
Dixon and Los Rios Chancellor Brian King during a March 16 news conference declined to discuss the exact language used by Barnes in her alleged racist threats, but said they included threats made directly against Dixon as well as broader threats to Black campus community members. Barnes has not been a student at American River College for several years.
Dixon said Barnes has a history of making harassing phone calls to the campus, but that the calls only recently began to include threats.
Court records show an extensive legal history in Sacramento County for Barnes, a former teacher at various schools in San Juan Unified School District, beginning with a wrongful termination lawsuit against the K-12 district in 2011. A judge ruled in favor of San Juan Unified the following year.
Barnes from 2011 to 2012 filed more than a dozen defamation lawsuits against a wide array of plaintiffs including then-Mayor Kevin Johnson, numerous K-12 school districts as well as private schools, Sacramento State, and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. The lawsuits were all either dismissed or settled out of court.
Three permanent restraining orders were granted against her in 2019: one involving the minister of a Presbyterian church and two involving local business owners, all three of which are based in East Sacramento.
