Sometimes, the line between protected speech and violence grows thin.

If you participate in local government, odds are pretty good you’ve met Joe Cubbage. He regularly attends meetings and speaks up during public comment periods. He is unafraid to tell elected officials exactly what he thinks of them – sometimes politely, sometimes critically.

He is also, depending on the thread of the story, a hero or a victim. Many of Cubbage’s fantastical claims are impossible to corroborate. He says he’s a former FBI agent; that he’s been to the front lines of the war in Ukraine. He also says a motorcycle collision gave him a lasting brain injury, which may or may not contribute to some of his more grandiose thinking.

I first got to know Cubbage years ago, when he was appealing what he thought was an unfair elder abuse and grand theft case against him for stealing money from his aging parents. In 2012, he pleaded no contest and spent five years on felony probation; his sister pushed for a conservatorship to safely manage family finances, but Cubbage saw himself as the victim – not just of his family, but a corrupt scheme involving judges and others.

I find Cubbage’s credibility tenuous, even if he is affable. Others describe a more violent demeanor at times.

“His behavior has increasingly become more alarming in the last several months. I felt a shift,” Seaside Police Chief Nick Borges says. “I have had quite a few community members tell me his persistence in trying to meet was scaring people.”

“If he wants to call us names, it’s free speech.”

On Monday morning, Feb. 24, things took a darker turn. Police say Cubbage cornered his ex-wife, with whom he shares a home in Seaside, and demanded that she produce information about U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta and former Carmel mayor Steve Dallas. If she didn’t do so by the end of the day, he would kill all three of them.

An hourslong standoff with police ensued. Eventually, around 7:30pm, as SWAT team members were preparing to enter his home, Cubbage surrendered peacefully; he was not armed. The 55-year-old is being held in Monterey County Jail on $1 million bail.

Of course, outspokenness and critique of government are not a crime, even if they make people uncomfortable. But there is a line, even if it can be fuzzy. “We don’t want to be in a position where we look back and say, ‘Gosh, Joe was a really friendly guy with a good heart – but he hurt people,’” Borges says.

This time, police say, Cubbage crossed the line. But he and Brian Baughn, with whom he has communicated about local politics, have at least toed it in the past.

Last year, Cubbage was mentioned in an unrelated case filed by Salinas businessman Mike Hackett, who sought a restraining order against Baughn. Hackett was freaked out by Baughn’s social media posts about him and his family, and what Hackett described as hostile run-ins around town, including in Hackett’s front yard.

“If he wants to call us names, drug dealers, whatever – it’s free speech. This is about him terrorizing my family,” Hackett said during a court hearing in July.

But most of the in-person conduct Hackett described was about Cubbage, not Baughn. His wife described Cubbage entering their restaurant Casa Sorrento, and issuing a threat seeking to get her to drop the case. “It frightened me,” she said.

There was, however, no pending case against Cubbage. The Hacketts wanted a restraining order against Baughn, who similarly communicates regularly with public officials, including law enforcement officers, offering up theories about how to root out corruption.

Judge Julie Culver was unpersuaded that Baughn’s conduct, even if uncomfortable, posed a threat. “I don’t control the internet; there’s nothing I can do to prevent people from posting. I believe in free speech,” she said.

She declined to issue a restraining order, although back in March 2024, she had signed a temporary one, which requires a lower legal threshold.

The line between free speech and dangerous speech is increasingly fuzzy.

“Too many people in our community are angry, fearful and anxious for the future and see politics and public servants as outlets for their frustrations and fears,” Panetta said in an emailed statement. “Each of us has a responsibility to lower the temperature of public debate.”

Public debate should be vigorous, but it should also be safe for everyone.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com