County seeks restraining order against a former employee.

Cynthia Girard-Berry, human resources manager for the Monterey County Health Department, was at lunch with colleagues at Eagle Restaurant in Salinas on Dec. 8. A group of women got up to leave from a booth nearby when one of them – Devon Corpus, the Health Department’s former crisis team supervisor – approached Girard-Berry’s table.

“The only thing I have to say to you is shame on you!” Corpus yelled.

That's according to documents in Monterey County Superior Court. 

It was weeks after Corpus’ former boss, Robert Jackson, killed himself. Both had been removed from their county posts and placed on leave last year, and Jackson was never invited back – 18 months on leave from the job he loved was the reason, Corpus believes, that drove Jackson to despair.

Then on Dec. 12, Anna Lisa Leal, nursing director for Natividad Medical Center’s mental health unit, received a text message: “I hope you feel God’s wrath and burn for what you did to Jackson… You have blood on your hands.”

In the subsequent days, Leal claims, she feared for her safety and explored the possibility of carrying a personal Taser for protection. “As a mental health professional, and as someone who has known [Corpus] for nearly a decade, it is my opinion that she is currently unstable,” she wrote in court papers.

Corpus sent similar texts to Behavioral Health Services Manager Melanie Rhodes and two other employees. “The county killed him and I will not rest until justice is served,” she wrote.

Those texts, the exchange at Eagle and a post Corpus wrote on Facebook all became part of a court file against her on Dec. 15, when Monterey County filed for a restraining order against her, seeking a court order requiring her to stay away from the Health Department and Natividad.

The court granted a temporary restraining order Dec. 16; the parties will be back in court Jan. 23 for a hearing.

Corpus’ attorney, John Sarsfield, does not dispute that Corpus sent the texts or made the remarks in question. What he does dispute is whether it’s a threat – and whether she is entitled, under free-speech laws, to religious speech.

“We don’t deny that the words were said, but it’s all privileged under the First Amendment,” Sarsfield says. “Devon didn’t threaten anybody. She’s a woman with a deep religious conviction, and she believes what she believes. She was simply expressing her beliefs.”

Sarsfield views the case as an intimidation tactic against Corpus, who has a pending lawsuit against the county, which was filed in March of last year.