Jeanne Ives: Voice mail threat was frightening
Republican state Rep. Jeanne Ives said she felt threatened and afraid when she learned of a voice mail left at her district office on March 20, 2013.
The Wheaton legislator took the witness stand Wednesday morning in the trial of Stephen Bona, 52, who faces felony charges of threatening a public official. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison.
Bona was arrested and charged just hours after Ives' legislative assistant reported getting the threatening voice mail at her district office.
"Your Tea Party brethren Sarah Palin put up a map that included the names, locations and faces of Democratic candidates and put them in the crosshairs of a gun," Bona said on the voice mail, played several times in court Wednesday.
Bona went on to suggest that "perhaps we should do the same for you. We know where you live."
Ives' former legislative aid, Kathleen Murphy, testified she called Wheaton police as soon as she listened to the voice mail. She then called Ives, who was in Springfield.
"I felt threatened and I was frightened. I'm in Springfield and my kids are in school. My kids walk home from school and someone is saying they know where I live," Ives testified. "It's very frightening to know someone has targeted your home where your children live. I was very afraid."
After Bona was arrested, he left another voice mail for Ives, leaving his name, address and telephone number, and noting that "for the record, I was charged with disorderly conduct following ... phone calls made to your office in response to your outrageous and personally disturbing comments about same-sex relationships."
Bona is accused of leaving the message after Ives' February 2013 appearance on a Catholic Conference of Illinois radio show. On that show, she said same-sex marriages are "disordered" and couples are trying to "weasel their way into acceptability."
Ives said she received significant feedback to the interview in her email, voice mail and social media accounts. Much of it contained profanity, but no others were threatening, she said.
"I received hate mail, email, and voice mails (after the radio interview)," she said. "And I had to just shut down my Facebook account."
Bona's attorney, Stephen Richards, has argued that Bona never intended to frighten Ives or threaten her with being shot.
"He intended to wake her up," Richards said. "He wanted to get her to understand that any more inflammatory rhetoric will be met with more inflammatory rhetoric."
Bona took the stand in his own defense Wednesday afternoon and reiterated that not only did he not intend to threaten Ives, but he never knew where she lives.
Bona said he was offended by several "dog whistle terms."
"The term 'disordered' is supposed to be in reference about us being mentally unstable," said Bona, whose parents tried to have him declared mentally ill when he came out as gay. "And saying we're 'weaseling our way into acceptability' implies the way we're living our lives is unacceptable. 'Weasel' has a lot of connotations."
The case is expected to go the jury Thursday morning after closing arguments.