Gun charges dropped in D.A. threat case
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The California attorney general’s office dropped two gun charges against a 32-year-old Perris man accused of threatening Riverside County Dist. Atty. Rod Pacheco in a classified ad.
The Aug. 25 ad in the Riverside Press-Enterprise included Pacheco’s phone number and home address and listed a “Big Blowout, Going Out of Business” yard sale with proceeds to benefit the “Rod Pacheco memorial fund.”
Chandler William Cardwell, a Press-Enterprise classified employee, faces felony charges including criminal threats, threatening the life of a public official and providing false bank account information, as well as allegations that he placed the ad on behalf of Riverside’s East Side Riva street gang. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The attorney general’s office dropped the weapons charges Wednesday after learning that Cardwell had written permission from the firearms division of the state Department of Justice to possess the guns despite a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon in 1994. The assault conviction was a misdemeanor.
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