Sonoma County secures restraining order against man who threatened Supervisor James Gore

Sonoma County won a long-term extension of a workplace restraining order on behalf of Supervisor James Gore on Wednesday, with Superior Court Judge Patrick Broderick ruling that Santa Rosa resident Shelby Pryor made a “credible threat” against the supervisor at an April 19 board meeting.

Under terms of the order, Pryor — named as Shelby Dodson in the case file — must stay at least 100 yards from Gore, his family members, their home, vehicles and schools for three years, and may not follow or stalk them, or seek out information on where they live. Pryor is also prohibited from owning, possessing or buying firearms or ammunition for the three-year duration of the order.

The county is allowing a “carve-out” that will allow Pryor to continue to speak at supervisors’ meetings, and even to address Gore directly there, regardless of proximity.

After three hours of testimony, Broderick read through a series of statements Pryor allegedly shouted at Gore through an amplified microphone after being ushered from the public chamber during the April 19 meeting. Each passage, the judge said, could be construed as a threat.

One example was Pryor’s invitation to Gore, who was leading the meeting inside, to “bring a gun if you want to. Oh, yeah. I know how to use guns better than you.”

“That is absolutely a credible threat of violence,” Broderick said. “As defined, it would be a knowing and willful statement or course of conduct that would place a reasonable person in fear of their safety. Because now not only has the petitioner established a threat of a fight using fists. But now guns.”

Pryor is also alleged that day to have shouted things like “Gore! Gore! Gore! I’m gonna take you down,” and “I will be everywhere you go. You better be ready.”

Gore said he is most troubled that Pryor referred to the supervisor’s wife, Elizabeth, using a vulgar, misogynist term, and at one point challenged Gore to bring his son into the fight, again with a derogatory term. Gore’s son is 7 years old.

“I’ve never had that sinking feeling in my gut,” Gore said in the courtroom Wednesday, the day after he cruised to election victory as the incumbent supervisor for District 4. “Despite whatever antagonism surrounds my work, my job, people’s opinions, I’ve always been able to go home and not feel threatened.”

Prodded on by Sonoma County Chief Deputy Counsel Josh Myers, Gore said, “It made me feel like (Pryor) doesn’t have the ability to manage his filter.”

Other people have noticed that lack of emotional control, the supervisor told Broderick.

“It’s disconcerting to have four or five different individuals with school boards, city councils, nonprofits and others tell me that they felt threatened by him as well,” Gore said, “to the point that I asked them if they’d be interested in being a witness or testifying in a statement that they were worried about that. That they had fear of him.”

Gore declined further comment after the hearing.

Pryor does not dispute that he lost his temper at the April 19 meeting. But as he previously explained when the county was able to secure a temporary restraining order on April 21, he had mistaken Gore’s directive to “go outside” if he couldn’t contain his outbursts as a provocation to fight.

Pryor’s shouts from the parking lot were in the heat of emotion, he said, and he means no ill will toward the Gores. He thought their son was an adult, not a child.

“I don’t wish to fight that with that man,” Pryor told the judge. “I don’t wish a fight with his family.”

To begin Wednesday’s hearing, Broderick encouraged the two sides to reach an agreement through a court-appointed mediator. Pryor was amenable, but the county refused.

Pryor, who represented himself, also noted that he had fully complied with the temporary restraining order. Gore disagreed, pointing out that Pryor showed up at a debate between the supervisor and his election opponent, Andy Springer, held at a school. Pryor stood outside the fence and waved at Gore and others while his fiancée, Adina Flores, demonstrated with a microphone.

Gore didn’t bring his children to the event, he said, “because I thought he was gonna be there. And I didn’t want to have them around for a conflict.”

Pryor disputed going to the debate with any intention of confronting Gore. He was there, he said, to speak out against Springer. Pryor and Flores are former members of Springer’s Heartwood Church in Rohnert Park, and they wound up feeling used by the pastor, Pryor said.

He and Flores are in the midst of a long-running conflict with Sonoma County officials. It began largely as a protest against COVID vaccination mandates, but has expanded to include a number of allegations regarding financial ties and lack of transparency.

James and Elizabeth Gore are among the primary targets of Flores’ many emails requesting information and explanation. She has questioned Elizabeth Gore’s role as the past president of Rebuild North Bay and her business, Hello Alice, claiming James Gore has failed to disclose those associations on financial and conflict-of-interest forms. Flores has also painted the supervisor as having close ties to the United Nations and to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The state Fair Political Practices Commission opened an investigation into her complaint, but later sent letters explaining it had found nothing enforceable in Elizabeth Gore’s nonprofit work.

Flores’ quest for vindication at the local level has driven many of her confrontational comments at Board of Supervisors meetings. When Gore didn’t give her the substantive answer she wanted at the April 19 meeting, Pryor’s frustration erupted. He took a much more subdued tone Wednesday, but it didn’t sway Broderick.

In the phone interview, Pryor vowed not to halt his activism, or his efforts to expose James Gore and other members of what he sees as the local elite. In fact, he may have identified another target.

“To be quite honest, I’m doing some research on this judge, to find out how he is affiliated to Mr. Gore and if he endorsed him in any way,” Pryor said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon. “I feel like the man did at least do judicial theater with me, and he checked Mr. Gore when necessary. But they have an angle.”

You can reach Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.