Council Candidate Is Arrested

A candidate for Thousand Oaks City Council was arrested on suspicion of disrupting a public forum by telling organizers he had purchased a gun.

Daniel Avila, 25, was arrested Tuesday at the Los Robles Greens Golf Course banquet room about 8 p.m. after becoming upset that he was denied a chance to participate in a candidates’ forum sponsored by the Thousand Oaks-Westlake Chamber of Commerce.

Avila, a computer programming consultant with a business in Marina del Rey, said Wednesday he was angered at being excluded for arriving at most a minute late for the 7 p.m. forum.

“The purpose of such a forum is to give candidates a chance to speak,” he said. “If they’re a bit late it’s their loss of time, but they should be allowed to speak.”

Avila is already known by local law enforcement. At a public event last month, he circulated a flier supporting the assassination of President Bush and the sexual assault of Bush’s daughters. He also brought a hatchet to a city Planning Commission meeting in late July. He was not arrested in either incident.

Avila denied that the flier was a threat against the first family, saying that it was his personal opinion and that strong words were needed to get the attention of a complacent electorate.

To illustrate the lax monitoring of his whereabouts by law enforcement if he is considered a threat, Avila said he legally bought a 9-millimeter handgun last week and brought photocopies of the receipt to Tuesday’s forum.

Avila, one of seven candidates seeking two City Council positions in the Nov. 2 election, became belligerent and used profanities when he was told he could not participate in the forum based on rules to which the candidates agreed, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike De Los Santos.

Avila left the meeting and drove south on the Ventura Freeway before his vehicle was stopped near Reyes Adobe Road by deputies, who searched his vehicle and discovered no weapon. Avila was issued a verbal warning and released, De Los Santos said.

About 8 p.m., Avila returned to the forum with a megaphone, began shouting and making comments about the bullhorn being his weapon to shut down the meeting.

Several of the three dozen people in attendance, including a plainclothes deputy, surrounded Avila, took away the megaphone and detained him until more deputies arrived, De Los Santos said.

Avila was booked into Ventura County Jail on a misdemeanor charge of disturbing a public assembly and was released after promising to appear in court.