Roseville Police: Anti-Gay Letter To Homeowners' Association President Not Hate Crime
ROSEVILLE (CBS13) — A Roseville homeowner was targeted by a letter attacking his sexual orientation, but police aren't treating the letter as a hate crime.
Jason Braga is the president of the homeowners association in Roseville. When he got the letter, he was nothing short of stunned.
"Why someone would even do that?" he said. "I mean in this day and age, why would you even send something like that?"
Braga lives in a Roseville gated community with his partner Gary. He loved his community so much that he ran to be the president of the Crocker Ranch Lot 7 Homeowners Association and won.
And then the letter arrived.
"I'm part of this community. I do what I can for the homeowners association, for my neighbors, and why would someone want to do that?" he said.
The letter starts off referencing Jason's election, and what comes next he calls nothing short of hate speech.
It's filled with grammatical and spelling errors and reads in part:
"... ijust (sic) found out you are a f----- with aman (sic) in your home.our (sic) neighborhood is full of children like my own, you make me sick!!!"
It continues, "DO NOT EVER COME TO MY HOME OR PROPERTY AGAIN OR ELSE ILL (sic) COME TO YOURS AGAIN AND AGAIN!!! GOD HELP YOU , NO ONE ELSE WILLYOU (SIC) ARE THE LOWEST OF THE LOW."
Braga says he feels threatened after getting the letter.
"I feel like we can't leave our house and worry. And now we worry about whether something is going to happen when we leave," he said.
Braga reached out to Roseville Police, who said that while the letter is disturbing, it can't be classified as a hate crime.
"If the person had said they were going to hurt the person in some way, hurt their property, or say a loved one in some way, or vandalized their property, then we could have qualified it as more of a hate crime," said Roseville Lt. Cal Walstad.
Braga's partner, Gary Jewell, feels differently.
"To say, 'You're a low person, you don't deserve to do anything, and then if you come to my house, only God will be able to help you at that point,' I'm sorry, that's a threat," he said.
But Braga says the letter won't stop him from serving his neighborhood as president for the next year, and he hopes that by speaking out, his story will be a lesson in tolerance.
"I think it's one person," he said. "I don't think it's the whole community. I mean, I truly believe it's the act of one uneducated person. But it's still disturbing, whether it's one person or 10."
Police are trying to figure out who the sender of the letter is, but at this point, that person won't be facing any charges.
