James Melvin Stewart, who is accused of assaulting Elverta School Board trustee Richard Currier at the Food Source on Elkhorn Blvd. has been arrested.
According to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, on March 5, Mr. Currier was in the Food Source on Elkhorn Boulevard in Rio Linda when he heard his name called. When he turned around, Mr. Stewart punched him once in the face and left the scene. Mr. Currier fell to the hard concrete floor unconscious. He suffered a concussion and required staples for a head wound.
Mr. Stewart was arrested in his home at 6pm Tuesday night and was booked into Sacramento County Jail on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon and felony assault causing great bodily injury. Bail is set at $30,000 and he will appear in court Thursday, March 12th.
The Sacramento Bee reports that Sacramento County Superintendent of Schools Dave Gordon said Stewart has a long history of harassing school district officials in the tiny Elverta district, which serves 290 students from Sacramento and Placer counties.
“School officials should not be fair game for disgruntled individuals,” Gordon said. “It is unfortunate that this was allowed to get to this extreme where the guy was allowed to attack a board member and put him in the hospital.”
The district’s problems with Stewart began after the previous superintendent, Elizabeth Golchert, was fired in November 2010 over allegations that duct tape was placed on a student’s mouth. Stewart was angry about the decision and law enforcement had to be called, according to Borgaard.
A timeline prepared by Borgaard shows that Stewart came to him with a list of grievances shortly after he started as the new superintendent in August 2011. In the intervening years, Stewart challenged Borgaard to a fight and accused Borgaard and Currier of being romantically involved with his estranged wife, who was employed with the district.
Stewart posted cardboard signs throughout the community repeating his allegations. “It’s very disturbing to this community to have someone making these baseless accusations,” Borgaard said Wednesday.
Borgaard, who calls Stewart “a dangerous man,” was granted a restraining order against him in 2013.
“He has really traumatized people,” Gordon said. “It is the smallest district in Sacramento County. … There is the superintendent, and that is about it. He does not have a lot of staff. My office does a lot of his back-office work. He has his hands full just trying to run the district properly, much less have to deal with these kind of situations.”
