STOCKTON, CA - The Lodi woman who ran for congress last year, making claims she'd received death threats because of the campaign, has been accused of making up those threats.
Karen Mathews Davis finished a distant fourth in the 2014 primary. When she announced her campaign, she referred often to death threats she received in the mail. She even read from one of the letters. "This is to serve you with the notice, you're not permitted to run for Congress, so stop now. A close up shot to your head or your husband will be final," Davis read.
A federal complaint accuses Mathews of making up the threats, typing the notes herself, even arranging to have the letters delivered to her Lodi home. The complaint reports Mathews failed a polygraph during an investigation into the threats, and then confessed. The complaint said Davis' handwriting matched the handwriting on the envelopes.
During her 2014 campaign, Davis made it clear she wouldn't be frightened by those threats.
"I think I'm stubborn enough to say I won't give in. If I give in, who's the next person who's going to be threatened out of running for office," Davis asked.
The threat claims weren't far-fetched. 20 years earlier Davis was attacked at her Modesto home while serving as the Stanislaus County Clerk. Members of an extremist anti-government group were found guilty for that attack.
"I'm not going to give in to threats today, any more than I did in 1994," Davis said in the 2014 interview.
Thursday afternoon Davis appeared in federal court and was released on a $50,000 bond. She's accused of making false, fictitious and fraudulent statements during an investigation.
