Alleged victim distressed by DA’s handling of hate speech, antisemitic threats case
Editor’s note: Be forewarned that this story includes antisemitic threats, hate speech and slurs. A former Humboldt County planning commissioner is expressing growing distress at way authorities are handling the case of a 33-year-old Arcata man who allegedly made violent, antisemitic threats against him, his family and Jews in general. Lee Ulansey, a local businessman who served on the Planning Commission for four years and founded the Humboldt Coalition for Property Rights, penned a letter to District Attorney Stacey Eads earlier this month after learning the suspect in the case, Daniel Epperson, had been released from custody while awaiting trial without Ulansey or his family having been notified. “I’m sure that there are all sorts of reasons, bureaucratic foul ups, mistakes, and plenty of blame to go around for your office putting my family in danger. None of them are acceptable,” Ulansey wrote in the letter, warning that if the office continues to be “derelict” in its obligation to protect crime victims, it “will be responsible for getting someone killed.” The case — and its handling — has drawn interest from numerous national and international anti-hate organizations, according to Ulansey, including Stand With Us, which bills itself as a “nonpartisan education organization that supports Israel and fights antisemitism.” Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Epperson on March 13, more than two months after Ulansey reported that he and his son, Joshua, had received a long string of antisemitic death threats aimed at them specifically and Jews generally on social media. According to an affidavit for an arrest warrant in the case, Ulansey reported the threats Jan. 8 and later provided the sheriff’s office with scores of screenshots of direct messages Epperson allegedly sent his son as well as posts to a public page. Among those quoted in the affidavit: “Hitler should have done a better job,” “I will kill your dad,” “He is a nigger,” “Lee Ulansey is a Jew ass nigger,” “Die, Jews,” “Fuck the goddamn Jews,” “Lee Ulansey must die” and “Lee Ulansey will die soon.” Ulansey’s letter to Eads quotes more, including direct messages to his son (“Your piece of garbage dad will die,” “You should have been put in a concentration camp before you were born”) and public posts (“More Jews need to die,” “Die Jews,” “I’m ready, are you Jews?”). Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal told the Journal back on Feb. 13 that his office had…