Campaign Official Says Roberti Foes Threatened Her

Several men dumped dozens of campaign signs Sunday at the home of State Sen. David Roberti’s campaign treasurer, then allegedly made threatening remarks and nearly struck her husband with their car as they sped away, according to a Los Angeles police report.

Shirley Wechsler, a professional political treasurer, said in an interview Monday that the incident scared her and was followed by two anonymous phone calls complaining about the signs being on public property.

‘I’m frightened because I think these people are capable of violence,” said Wechsler.

She and Roberti’s press secretary, Staci Walters, believe that the incident was the work of political opponents seeking to oust Roberti in an April 12 recall election.

Wechsler said one of the men warned her husband “to stay away from the window,” which the couple interpreted as a threat of violence.

The recall campaign has been largely organized and underwritten by Second Amendment enthusiasts who are angry about Roberti’s support of gun-control laws. Recall campaign representatives deny involvement in the incident.

“I don’t know if it was officially sanctioned by them, but the members of the recall have used intimidation before--just read their literature,” Walters said, referring to a confidential campaign document that was leaked to the media last year. The document said the political tactic of one of the groups involved in the recall was to mail its political enemies a picture of a horse’s head, to warn them that they were being targeted.

Roberti has also claimed that he has received numerous death threats from people opposed to his gun-control work.

“I’m even afraid to let my dogs go outside now,” Wechsler said in an interview. “These people are hunters, and if they’d shoot a deer, they’d shoot a dog.”

Lt. Len Hundshamer, watch commander at the North Hollywood Division station, said police are investigating a complaint of assault with a vehicle filed by Wechsler’s spouse, 63-year-old Arthur Forcier, a political science professor. Forcier told police that he had to jump backward to avoid being hit when the car driven by the men pulled out of his driveway.

William Dominguez, leader of the groups seeking Roberti’s ouster, denied that his group was involved in the incident. “We don’t have to intimidate anybody, including Roberti,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez said he does not condone such “distasteful behavior” and speculated that the incident was fabricated by the Roberti camp to further its efforts to portray his political foes as thugs.

“They’re trying to create an image of us being a bunch of gun-crazy extremists,” said Dominguez, who several weeks ago reported to police the theft of 15 guns from his Van Nuys apartment. “I wouldn’t put it past Roberti to stage some kind of thing like this to help him with his image-making.”

Walters said campaign workers Monday began removing pro-Roberti campaign posters placed in public places, and used fingernail polish remover to erase Wechsler’s name and home address, printed in a small print disclaimer at the bottom of the literature.

Wechsler said she demanded Roberti’s permission to have the information removed as a protection against further harassment.