People v. Ochsenfeld CA1/4

I. BACKGROUND

In January 2020, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office filed an information charging Ochsenfeld with driving in willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property while fleeing from a pursuing police officer, a felony (count one; Veh. Code, § 2800.2, subd. (a)); making terrorist threats against his estranged wife, Denise Ochsenfeld, and his mother, Bonnie Ochsenfeld1 (counts two and three; Pen. Code, § 422, subd. (a)), alleged to be serious felonies (Pen. Code, § 1192.7, subd. (c)); and misdemeanor vandalism (count four; Pen. Code, § 594, subd. (a)). These counts were based on evidence presented at a January 2020 preliminary hearing. Denise testified that she woke up shortly before 7:00 a.m. on June 18, 2018, at her Fremont residence, which she shared with a baby daughter, Bonnie and a roommate, to text messages from Ochsenfeld to answer the door and asserting “stuff about getting me and the police.” In the previous weeks and months, Ochsenfeld had threatened daily to harm her and to take their daughter. He had also asked her, “ ‘Do you wanna watch me die on the front lawn,’ ” which she “took as more or less suicide by cop.” That morning,…