Gilroy man arrested for alleged threats against public health officer

A 55-year-old Gilroy man, allegedly a member of the far-right Boogaloo movement, has been arrested for sending threatening letters to Santa Clara County’s public health director, according to court documents and sheriff’s office reports.

Santa Clara County Sheriff’s detectives arrested Alan Joseph Viarengo last Thursday at his home for allegedly sending two dozen unsigned threatening or harassing letters to Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County public health director. Cody helped lead the pioneering Bay Area-wide shelter-in-place order in March.

Detectives found 138 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and explosive materials in his house, a sheriff’s spokesman said.

Viarengo faces two felony counts — stalking and threatening a public official — and did not enter a plea when he was arraigned in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Monday. He did not enter a plea as scheduled on Tuesday and is being held without bail at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas.

According to a sheriff’s report, Viarengo sent a series of threatening, insulting and obscenity-laced letters to Cody from April 9 to July 29. He was arrested after deputies secretly watched him mail a threatening letter from a Watsonville post office.

Cody received many harassing letters after issuing the initial shelter-in-place order and subsequent mandates but most just sent a single letter. Viarengo, who allegedly sent his letters anonymously, was relentless, sending “a steady flow of letters, sometimes several per week,” and used her middle name as well as her husband’s name in the letters, according to the report. Sheriff’s deputies have been providing security for Cody and her family.

Viarengo used a picture of an igloo and the phrase “Let’s Boogaloo,” references commonly used by members of the Boogaloo movement in an effort to further intimidate the public health officer, officials said.

The Boogaloo movement, whose members are often referred to as Boogaloo Bois, have been tied to the killings of a sheriff’s deputy in Santa Cruz County and a federal security guard in Oakland. The loosely organized group is anti-government, anti-police and believes that “patriots” will rise up and spark a second civil war, which they refer to as a Boogaloo.

In one of the later letters sent to Cody, reportedly by Viarengo, he wrote that “the Constitution is not suspended during times of crisis and your silly little ‘orders’ are not enforceable by law.” The orders do, in fact, carry the weight of law.

In a letter to the court, Cody Salfen, an attorney who appeared with Viarengo on Tuesday but does not represent him, said he is “a dedicated father, husband, community activist, respected professor and volunteer,” according to NBC Bay Area, which first reported the story. Viarengo is a part-time math teacher at Gavilan College in Gilroy, according to the college website. He also works at Nordic Naturals, a health supplement company in Watsonville, according to the sheriff’s office.

Jeff Rosen, Santa Clara County’s district attorney, said in a statement that while citizens have the right to disagree with public officials and their actions, there are limits to how that dissent can be expressed.

“There is a major difference in expressing disagreement with a public official’s decisions and making criminal threats,” Rosen said. “We will prosecute anyone who crosses that line and tries to terrorize people who are simply doing their jobs.”

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan