Internet Debate Rages Around GOP Legislator

As state Sen. Tim Leslie tells it, he proudly led the fight in March to strip mountain lions of their special protections, received a death threat on the Internet computer network and now is getting hammered for calling the police.

The voters defeated his Proposition 197, which opponents charged could have restored mountain lion hunting in California. But three months later, ripples from the emotional fight roll on in cyberspace.

Leslie, a relatively obscure Republican from the Lake Tahoe resort village of Carnelian Bay and a computer buff, finds himself at the center of a new online debate with perhaps millions of global witnesses looking on.

At issue is a public message on the Internet, posted at the peak of the mountain lion campaign, that read: “Let’s hunt Sen. Tim Leslie for sport. . . . I think it would be great if he were hunted down and skinned and mounted for our viewing pleasure.”

After the posting, Leslie says, he followed standard legislative procedure by reporting the message to police. In early May, Jose Eduardo Saavedra, a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Texas at El Paso, was arrested and accused of making a death threat.

“I guess you could say I was the victim,” Leslie said in a recent interview. “I was minding my own business, and one day there was this threatening letter on the Internet. . . . I was the person who had to alter my travel plans and have a bodyguard for a period of time.”

Saavedra is believed to be the first person charged with making an online threat against a public official, a felony in California. He spent 16 days in a Texas jail and faces extradition to Sacramento.

Now, debate about the arrest and Leslie’s role in it rages on the Internet. Some assert Saavedra made no threat at all, but simply exercised his right of free speech. Others accuse Leslie of trying to squeeze political mileage from the affair. Still others support him.

In a sampling of online correspondence, one man scolded Leslie: “I can only conclude that you are using this young man to promote your own political career, by stirring up fear about technology and its evils.”

Wrote a second: “Even though I agree with your stand on the [mountain lion] issue, I think you are completely off base in pursuing any charges against this kid.”

Another said Leslie acted properly in calling the police, but demanded, “Why are you apologizing for the arrest of this nut?”

Saavedra’s arrest--months after Leslie had reported the threat--stirred controversy anew on the Internet, much of it criticism aimed at Leslie.

The senator then decided to “dispel any misconceptions” about his role by posting a letter on the Internet.

“I did not file a complaint, nor did I ask that the person be arrested. In short, I bear no responsibility for the decision to arrest Mr. Saavedra and I have no authority over future decisions regarding his prosecution,” Leslie told fellow Internet users.

The letter, though, did little to quell the debate.

Leslie said the controversy demonstrates the consequences of what he calls highly personal attacks and “irresponsible” campaign tactics by opponents of his Proposition 197.

“There are a lot of implications to the Internet as to what does it set into motion,” he said, adding that consequences cannot always be foreseen.

“The consequence is some kid in Texas, who doesn’t know anything about the mountain lion issue in California, gets worked up and does whatever he did,” Leslie said.

The district attorney in Sacramento has asked Texas to extradite Saavedra to face the charge of threatening the life of a public official, an offense punishable by up to three years in prison.

Extraditing someone from one state to another usually is a routine affair. But Saavedra’s volunteer lawyer, criminal defense attorney Mike Gibson of El Paso, said he intends to make the Saavedra case a 1st Amendment issue that could end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gibson said he plans to ask the federal court in Texas to block extradition on grounds that the California law violates his client’s right to free speech on the Internet.

“Our position is going to be that it is absolutely, unqualifiedly 1st Amendment-protected free speech,” Gibson said. “Therefore, in that limited instance, he cannot be extradited.”

Leslie says he is amazed by the lingering global discussion of the threat and its consequences, and can handle the criticism too. “Well, OK. I’ve got big shoulders. I get criticized all the time,” he said.

The internationally publicized mountain lion campaign and its electronic vibrations have handed Leslie widespread free attention most politicians can only dream of.

These days, Leslie is mentioned in speculation as a potential candidate for statewide office in four years, a possibility he coyly sidesteps as he seeks reelection to the Senate. “Ask me next year.”

As a legislator, Leslie, a former Assembly staff member, represents a conservative rural district of 25,000 square miles, straddling the spine of the Sierra from Mammoth Lakes to the Oregon line.

He is considered a vigorous advocate for the financially hard-hit counties of his district, but his tactics sometimes irritate colleagues. Two years ago, Senate leader Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) grew tired of Leslie’s persistence and dismissed him as a whining “puppy dog.”

Leslie has been a consistent advocate for removing voter-approved mountain lion protections, a position favored by many in his district, where cougars prey on cattle and sheep.

Opponents charged that Leslie’s initiative would have restored mountain lion hunting for sport, an accusation Leslie and his backers denied. They said the initiative was intended to protect citizens and livestock by ordering the fish and game department to “manage” the wild lion population.

There is much enmity between the two sides. And almost any debate about removing mountain lion protections--particularly in the course of political campaigns--is certain to ignite heated rhetoric, in the Capitol and well beyond, as the Internet issue shows.

“It’s a little bit bizarre to be able to have anyone in the world be able to sit around and discuss your death threat,” says a bemused Leslie.