ST. LUCIE COUNTY − A felony charge has been dropped against a man accused of making threatening statements to at least one county commissioner via e-mail, according to an assistant state attorney.
Anthony Louis Pizzarelli, 49, on July 17, was accused of sending an e-mail to Commissioner James Clasby’s county e-mail address that stated, among other things in all-capital letters, “…I will be ruthless where applicable including murder charges.”
He was booked July 18 into the St. Lucie County Jail on a felony charge of written threat to kill or do bodily harm.
According to an affidavit, Clasby notified Sheriff Richard Del Toro after he “found the tone of the message increasingly erratic and concerning.”
The affidavit states Pizzarelli, of Port St. Lucie, also has posted “incoherent and inflammatory messages” on social media and sent unsolicited texts and voicemails to Clasby and Commissioner Erin Lowry.
Assistant State Attorney Doug Tougas in a recent interview said the charge against Pizzarelli was dropped Aug. 13.
Tougas said he lacked “enough evidence to meet the legal standard.”
“I definitely understand why our victim, Commissioner Clasby, took it as a threat,” Tougas said. “However, there’s some ambiguity in the messages that I thought kind of left a legal defense.”
Tougas said to prove the charge, he had to prove Pizzarelli “intended the threat to be a true threat.”
E-mails from Pizzarelli obtained from St. Lucie County also appear to include messages sent to City of Port St. Lucie officials and copied to a variety of other individuals. The topic appeared to involve code enforcement or compliance-related issues.
Tougas said Pizzarelli in at least some messages appeared angered about a zoning issue.
Tougas said another message was sent to a commissioner who works with Clasby regarding family members who had apparently died.
“Texts like that give context to where he’s upset that a family member died. He’s trying to blame the county commissioners for whatever reason,” Tougas said. “And so when he’s talking about murder charges in the initial message, I think there’s reasonable doubt that you could interpret it as he’s talking about pressing this legal claim … pressing homicide charges, pressing a lawsuit that he’s mentioning.”
Tougas said he must prove Pizzarelli “intended the threat to be a true threat, so it kind of goes beyond what the victim hears.”
“I have to prove what was in the head of Anthony Pizzarelli at the time of sending that message, and I think all this context kind of muddies the water there as to what he was intending,” Tougas said. “Whenever there’s room for doubt, I’ve got an ethical obligation not to file on the charges.”
Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Felony charge dropped against man accused of threatening county commissioner
Reporting by Will Greenlee, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
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