The former student accused of threatening to kill an El Camino professor will be arraigned on June 27, after his defense attorney failed to make a Torrance judge try the case as a misdemeanor in court on Wednesday.
Judge T.K. Herman found that there was sufficient evidence against Dash Porter, 28, former theater major, to make the case go to trial.
“I doubt this will be settled as a misdemeanor,” Herman said.
Porter’s defense attorney Thomas Worthington was finally able to submit the psychiatric report on Porter; and although he had been trying for weeks to get Porter a misdemeanor charge (rather than a felony), he was unable to persuade Herman.
Porter earned a failing grade in an English 1A class with professor Cynthia Somin in 2014. Approximately eight months later in January 2015, he began sending multiple death threats to her via Facebook messenger, according to the temporary restraining order against Porter.
During today’s hearing, District Attorney Alexander Bott made several points that convinced Herman to take this case to trial.
“Porter is not the victim,” Bott said. “Cynthia Somin is the victim. Her life has been upended by this (incident).”
Bott also noted that the threat of Porter coming to school to kill Somin with a gun is a huge issue in California, and even brought up the most recent shooting at UCLA that happened moments after last Wednesday’s court hearing ended.
Worthington tried to make a case about Porter’s will to reconcile with the situation, getting help from counselors, doing work to not be disabled by his Autism and about how he “sincerely wishes to apologize to Somin.”
Worthington added that Porter is now doing volunteer work and is part of a play in Long Beach.
Following his closing remarks, Bott simply added that “if he’s doing this volunteer work, it shows he’s a high-functioning person who was capable of sending those messages with intent behind them.”
Porter, his family, and both Bott and Worthington will report to the Torrance Courthouse on June 27 for his arraignment.
