Gudger

Appelant, Cynthia Gudger, made two telephone calls to the secretary of the presiding judge of the municipal court during which she threatened to buy a gun and shoot another judge handling an unlawful detainer matter against her if she was evicted from her apartment and became homeless. Appellant contends that her conviction for threatening the life of a judge (Pen. Code, § 76) must be reversed because the statutory language defining the offense includes conditional threats which are not true threats and thus is overbroad in criminalizing speech which is protected by the First Amendment. She also urges that the evidence is insufficient to establish a threat and reveals merely an intemperate and overly dramatic expression of dissatisfaction with the judge handling her case and an inartful request to have the case assigned to a different judge. We find the statute constitutional and appellant’s attack upon the sufficiency of the evidence unavailing.

Facts

On the morning of Friday, May 7, 1993, Cathy Stafford, a secretary to then Presiding Judge Aviva Bobb of the Los Angeles Municipal Court, received a telephone call. The caller identified herself as appellant. Stafford…