In November of 2022, the Milpitas Police Department (MPD) opened a case to investigate alleged death threats against former Milpitas Councilmember Karina Dominguez. Dominguez stated that the threats were targeted toward her and her daughter and included phone calls and her vehicle being followed. She also stated that she believed that the threats were due to her going against the current Mayor Carmen Montano in the November Mayoral election.
Dominguez, who lost her race for Mayor to Carmen Montano in the election, is no longer serving on the Milpitas City Council.
Regarding the threats, the MPD police report on the case noted that Dominguez claimed to see the same man twice at Mil’s Diner, a restaurant she often ate at with her mayoral campaign team. In the report, Dominguez alleged that the man approached her and informed her that he was “on Carmen and Rich’s team.” When her team found one of Dominguez’s campaign signs slashed nearby, they guessed it might have been connected to that man.
But restaurant staff mentioned that the man was a regular at Mil’s Diner and ate there often. In a supplemental police report, Reporting Officer Kyle Sanchez wrote that “…based on the statements made by the subject, I determined that there were no criminal threats, or any other threatening actions made toward Dominguez.”
Dominguez also claimed that she noticed a dark grey BMW sedan following her through multiple streets on November 1, 2022. At one point, Dominguez, who was driving to City Hall to attend a Milpitas City Council meeting, stated that she had her windows rolled down and she heard a voice from the direction of the sedan say something about “Rich’s post.” Later that evening, during the Council meeting, Dominguez told Mayor Rich Tran, who supported Montano in the election, to stop writing posts about her on Facebook, as they were causing her to be followed and to fear for her safety.
Milpitas Police asked Dominguez what car she was driving to the Council meeting that night, and she said she was driving her daughter’s Kia. However, Officer Sanchez checked the Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) records and was unable to locate the Kia. He did, however, find Dominguez’s Toyota truck traveling eastbound on Calaveras at the same time when Dominguez had said she was going to the Council meeting. He checked and could find no grey sedan, or any other vehicle, following Dominguez’s car.
When asked about what the police found through the ALPR, Dominguez told The Beat: “The license plate readers couldn’t locate the cars because the following began on the freeway and the license plate reader didn’t find the match in Milpitas.”
One of the last claims made by Dominguez was that she had received a phone call on her Google Voice number, also on November 1, that contained various verbal threats toward Dominguez and her daughter. Dominguez claimed that a voice told her, “B****, you’re going to get it,” and “I know what your daughter’s wearing. She’s wearing a blue top.”
While talking to police, Dominguez also stated that she checked with her daughter at home and confirmed that she was wearing a blue top at the time.
In the report, the officer wrote: “Dominguez believed that since she was an elected City of Milpitas official who was running that the threat was credible, and she was fearful for her safety and the safety of her family.”
To investigate this claim, the MPD got a warrant to access Dominguez’s Google Voice call logs for the date and time when she said the call came through. When looking through the logs, the police found a phone number associated with “Lumen Technologies” and “Ring Central Inc.”
Upon further investigation, it was found that the phone number was associated with telemarketers who were based both overseas and in the state of Delaware. After doing further research and also calling up the number, the officer spoke to a person who informed him that their company phone was used for sales, conference calls, and telemarketing — and most recently to promote an upcoming Law 2.0 Conference event.
All of the numbers that came through to Dominguez’s phone between October 31 and November 1, 2022, were accounted for by police, and they could find none associated with the call Dominguez claimed to have received. Officer Sanchez informed Dominguez that in light of his findings, he was going to have to close the case. Dominguez told him that she understood.
The report, which was written on January 25, 2023, ended by stating that the case would be deactivated “pending any new information or evidence.”
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