Man accused of threatening Sacramento officials refuses to leave jail cell for court hearing
The man accused of threatening Sacramento city officials refused to come out of his jail cell on Tuesday and attend a court hearing to determine whether he should be released on bail.
Alexander Francis Hoch, 37, is accused of threatening City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela, City Councilwoman Mai Vang and City Council candidate Karina Talamantes, who works for outgoing Councilwoman Angelique Ashby.
Tuesday’s hearing was intended for the court to determine whether it should set a bail amount for Hoch, who has been held without bail at the Sacramento County Jail for 10 days. Hoch was taken into custody after refusing to come out of a midtown Sacramento home, where police officers were trying to serve him with an arrest warrant.
Sacramento Superior Court Commissioner Ken Brody said Hoch refused to attend Tuesday’s hearing, which was postponed until Dec. 6. If Hoch refuses to appear in court next month, Brody issued an extraction order that authorizes jail staff to pull Hoch out of his cell and take him to the courtroom.
Prosecutors have charged Hoch with two felony counts of threatening the life of a government official and one felony charge of threatening to commit a crime resulting in death or great bodily injury stemming from reported incidents on Nov. 10.
Temporary restraining order issued
Last week, Superior Court Judge Kenneth C. Meimemeier granted protective orders against Hoch. The court documents instruct Hoch to stay 100 yards away from Valenzuela, Vang and Talamantes, along with Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Ashby, who ran for a state Senate seat in the November election.
Documents filed in court in support of a restraining order request allege that Hoch had sent harassing messages for months to Valenzuela, Vang, Talamantes and Ashby. The messages escalated Nov. 10, when Hoch allegedly emailed Valenzuela a death threat.
“I’m going to kill you, Andrea, Anthony, karina and steinbergg... you have to f---ing kill me,” Hoch wrote in the email, submitted to the court.
That email prompted Valenzuela to contact the Sacramento Police Department, she wrote in a request for the order.
“I do not know who ‘Andrea’ and ‘Anthony’ are, but I immediately understood ‘karina”’ to be Karina Talamantes and ‘steinberg’ to be Mayor Steinberg,” Valenzuela wrote in submitted court documents.
Hoch allegedly stalked Talamantes
The documents also alleged that Hoch previously visited places where he was likely to find Talamantes, a Sacramento County Board of Education member who is Ashby’s chief of staff. She ran in the Nov. 8 election to represent the council’s 3rd District. While the race has not been called, Talamantes leads by more than 600 votes as of Friday.
Talamantes said the “harassment, threats, and fear” for her safety began in June, when Hoch started contacting her through social media, emails and tracking her whereabouts. She said she has increased security at her home, and made her family and friends aware of Hoch.
“It’s unacceptable that I have to fear for my own safety,” Talamantes said in a news release issued last week. “More must be done to protect women who choose to run for office and participate in the governance structure of our country.”
A hearing for the court to determine whether to make the restraining order permanent has been scheduled on Dec. 9.
Conviction stemming from 2020 assaults
Sacramento police arrested Hoch after a standoff that began in the afternoon on Nov. 12 at a home in the 3000 block of C Street in East Sacramento. Officers were there to serve a warrant for Hoch’s arrest. Police said Hoch refused to come of out of the home, so SWAT team officers ultimately “deployed a chemical agent” into the home. Hoch came out and surrendered without further incident.
Hoch has faced criminal charges before in Sacramento County.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office filed assault charges against Hoch on two occasions in fall 2020. The reported assaults seriously injured a man in August 2020 and again in October 2020, according to filed criminal complaints.
The assault charge stemming from the October 2020 incident was dismissed Jan. 26, 2021. That same day, Hoch was convicted in the August 2020 assault, and part of his sentence included probation time. He now is accused of violating that probation in connection with the alleged threats made Nov. 10.
