A Citra woman says it wasn’t her intention to threaten Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn or imply she was going to harm herself or anyone else when she sent what could be interpreted as a threatening email to the mayor on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old woman, who lives in the 2100 block of NE 175th St. Road, told a Marion County sheriff’s deputy she was only trying to educate the mayor on the plight of farmers when she wrote the following email: “You should be aware of how being shut out of the market you took over and handed off to the chamber only to say your hands are tied, affects people. Because this is what it is like. Everything we worked for and moved here for, you took away when you allowed what you did. The blood is on your hands,” a sheriff’s office report states.
The email also contained a link to an article about suicide rates among farmers experiencing financial problems, the report says.
Deputies responded to the woman’s home, where her husband said she was at work in Alachua County. He said she would never be a threat to herself or anyone else, and that she is very passionate about farming. He said she strongly disagrees with a decision Guinn made several years ago that prevented her farming business from participating in the Ocala Farmer’s Market, the report says.
The woman told deputies she was going through some financial issues and that she didn’t think it through when she sent the email. She said she didn’t even think it was going to be read. And she insisted that she was in no way suicidal, the report says.
Deputies determined that the woman didn’t meet Baker Act criteria. They advised her to refrain from sending emails that could be interpreted as a threat or harassment.