Man Held in Alleged Threats to Oxnard Mayor

Police arrested a man early Thursday for threatening to beat up Mayor Manuel Lopez if the top elected Oxnard official did not approve a project that authorities said does not exist.

Police arrested Robert Wayne Badiggo, 40, at his Oxnard home just before 7 a.m. and booked him on suspicion of threatening a public official and making lewd and annoying phone calls, said Det. Robert Coughlin of Oxnard’s Violent Crimes Task Force.

Authorities said Badiggo left the messages on the Police Department’s answering machine Monday night. He called numerous times, Coughlin said, referring to the mayor by name and rambling about a water park project that he felt would benefit children. City officials, however, said they do not know of any such project.

“He was not happy,” Coughlin said of the caller’s tone on the messages. “He wanted us to try to influence the mayor on some type of project he was interested in. Then he became mad and stated he wanted to beat the mayor up.”

The caller also made a lewd comment in reference to Lopez, authorities said.

The case was given to the city’s Violent Crimes Task Force, which informed the mayor about the calls.

Coughlin said the caller used a nickname to refer to himself during the calls, and detectives traced the name back to Badiggo.

Authorities placed Badiggo under surveillance Wednesday night and arrested him Thursday morning at his home without incident.

Lopez, who has never met Badiggo, said he first thought the threats were over some decision he had made that the caller didn’t like.

But he said he couldn’t remember any projects involving a water park.

In 1998, representatives of Oxnard College and city officials talked about ways to improve the county-run College Park, including adding a ballpark and a water park. But a formal proposal never came before city officials.

“We participate in so many decisions,” Lopez said. “I didn’t know if they were related to any specific decision, any position I might have taken; there’s just a lot of material that goes out there. When you are in the public eye you just have to understand there’s a lot of perceptions and misperceptions out there and try to work the best you can.”

Lopez called the threats against him “certainly not welcomed, but not unexpected.”

Prosecutors said cases involving threats against elected officials from the public are uncommon. Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Greg Totten said the last case he could remember in Ventura County was the 1997 case involving Frank Boyd Cockrell.

Cockrell, of Sherman Oaks, plotted to blow up the Ventura County Courthouse to destroy evidence used in an upcoming trial on charges of security fraud. Cockrell also held a grudge against Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury, and authorities worried for the prosecutor’s safety.

“But thankfully, that’s a relatively rare occurrence in this jurisdiction,” Totten said.

Authorities consider threats against local government officials similar to threats against the president, making the crime a felony. Badiggo is being held in Ventura jail in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Badiggo has had other run-ins with the law, including a 1999 arrest for making harassing phone calls. He pleaded guilty to two counts of making such calls and served 30 days in jail and was given three years’ probation. If convicted of the latest incident, Badiggo could receive up to a year in jail and a maximum fine of $10,000.