‘Criticizing a judge is not illegal’: Charges dropped against San Mateo County man accused of threatening jurist

SAN MATEO COUNTY — Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped two felony charges against a man that was accused of threatening a San Mateo County judge, citing a lack of evidence.

The accusations were levied against Edward Day, a 67-year-old Belmont resident, after he sent a series of emails to a judge who he had appeared before on firearm-related charges in 2019. He was stripped of his 12 guns as a result of the outcome of the case.

Day allegedly sent two emails to the same judge on May 30 of this year that were then reported to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. These emails were given to the Bay Area News Group by Day’s lawyers in a memo on Tuesday evening.

The attorneys said the missives contained crude language but didn’t explicitly threaten the judge. They include statements such as “I will be requesting the death penalty be handed to you guys. You … ruined my life with the goal of making sure I was murdered … I assure you I am committed to getting you guys for what you did to me.”

The memorandum, written by defense attorneys Daniel B. Olmos and Abbee B. Cox, says that Day sent two additional emails on June 6 wishing for the judge to go to prison. Olmos and Cox said that the charges of criminal threats and threatening certain public officials like judges require the evidence to show that a suspect explicitly threatened the lives of an official or their loved ones.

“The emails do not indicate that Mr. Day intends to impose or inflict the death penalty himself; they clearly state that he will be ‘requesting the death penalty be handed to you guys’ and ‘seeking death penalty for your actions’,” the memorandum reads. “In other words, these emails threaten litigation, not physical violence.”

The memorandum also pointed out that the judge in question did not fear for his own life, according to interviews he conducted with law enforcement on two separate occasions. The judge said he would be “concerned” if Day were released from custody without supervision, but to substantiate the criminal threats charge, the lawyers claimed, the judge would need to live in “sustained fear.”

“The emails at issue demonstrate poor judgment, but they are not criminal,” the memorandum reads.

The charges were dropped Tuesday with the district attorney’s office citing “insufficient evidence.” The district attorney’s office did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.

“We are thrilled that Mr. Day is finally free,” Cox told the Bay Area News Group on Wednesday. “However, it is disheartening that it took five weeks for the District Attorney’s Office to recognize what we knew all along: criticizing a judge is not illegal.”