Felony stalking over “retired” high school jersey
A 66-year-old graduate of Del Oro High School in Loomis has been given a six-month jail sentence and ordered to take anger management classes for one year for making criminal threats against the school’s head football coach.
Dennis Blaine McLin, who was angry because players at the school had continued to wear a jersey number that was supposed to have been retired in 1961, was also placed on probation for five years by Placer County Superior Court Judge Mark S. Curry.
McLin received the sentence Friday after pleading no contest to a felony count of stalking and a misdemeanor charge of making criminal threats.
The defendant was given credit for having served 19 days of jail time and will be allowed to serve the remainder of his jail sentence through house arrest with electronic monitoring in Nevada, where he resides.
Prosecutor Garen Horst of the Placer County District Attorney’s Office said McLin became angry after attending a game in 2008 and discovering that the retired jersey number of one of his old teammates was still being used by Del Oro players.
Horst said the threats against Del Oro”s football coach, Casey Taylor, began in December 2009, when the team had reached the CIF playoffs.
On Dec. 5, 2009, McLin left a profanity-laced message on Taylor”s answering machine. He made the statement, ‘I am after you,’ and made threats to fight with and harm Taylor, Horst said.
On Feb. 23, 2010, McLin left a second message for Taylor, telling him to resign ‘or I’m going to sue you.’ He threatened to slander Taylor’s name by going to the newspapers with various accusations.
Two days later, a Placer County sheriff’s detective conversed with McLin by phone. A warrant was subsequently issued for McLin’s arrest on the charges of stalking and making criminal threats.
After McLin”s sentencing, Taylor said that the defendant had been calling him with criticism since the 2008 football season.
‘But by December 2009, they really got bad,’ he said. ‘He started telling me to watch my back. In the section championship game, I had to get five security people to be around me during the whole game. We didn’t know if (McLin) went to the game, but he had said he would be there to ‘take me out.’
Taylor said many people are not aware of the scrutiny and pressure that teachers and coaches sometimes face. ‘I think it’s ridiculous that coaches would be getting death threats,’ he said. ‘I had to worry about my family. I’m at school every day or on the field on Friday nights and I had to worry about watching my back.’
Horst said Taylor ‘never should have had to endure this type of harassment, particularly during the stress of the football postseason in 2009.’
The prosecutor noted that McLin was convicted on two occasions of felony charges of resisting peace officers in the 1990s.’Mr. McLin has had opportunities in the past to get his anger and vocabulary under control,’ Horst said. ‘His latest conviction of felony stalking conveys an appropriate level of accountability for him and sends a message in the community that this type of behavior is unacceptable.’
Among conditions imposed by Judge Curry are that McLin must have no further contact with Coach Taylor or Del Oro High School. He also cannot possess deadly weapons and must subject to searches of his home or self upon requests by peace officers.
