A Sonoma County woman was held captive by a boyfriend for nearly five hours, faced death threats and was violently choked and attacked with fists, a knife, a belt buckle and a metal cup, investigators say,
The man identified as her attacker, Nicholas Calabrese, a now-former civil engineering technician with the city of Santa Rosa, was arrested Aug. 1. He was later charged with more than a dozen felonies including kidnapping, making threats and assault with a deadly weapon.
One year later, court proceedings are slated for a pause after a Sonoma County judge granted Calabrese, who’s out of custody, mental health diversion on July 2. That means Calabrese’s felony charges could be dismissed if he completes two years of mental health treatment.
Whether Calabrese should have qualified for diversion remains a point of contention. Judge Karlene Navarro’s order shows her decision was based on existing law that identifies criteria for diversion. But the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office is filing a request to change course.
“The notion that the defendant’s extreme capacity for deadly violence could be resolved through a two-year term of mental health treatment is not reasonable,” Deputy District Attorney Robert Blade said in a motion filed April 16 in opposition to diversion.
Calabrese’s defense attorney, Orchid Vaghti, said Monday, July 13, her client “does fall into the category and he is suitable. I think Judge Navarro did the right thing and did her job.”
Since 2018, mental health diversion has been considered for certain petitioners whose mental illnesses may be linked to a criminal offense. Petitioners need to meet criteria that includes having a mental disorder diagnosed within five years of an offense, showing it contributed to the incident and is treatable. They cannot be considered if they are likely to commit violent felonies known as super strikes, which include murder, voluntary manslaughter, major sex crimes and use of a weapon of mass destruction.
A recent high profile case involving mental health diversion culminated with a Pasadena man, accused of driving his wife and two children off a cliff near Devil’s Slide in 2023, having his criminal case dismissed July 6 after completing the two-year program.
Late last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 46, which raises standards for mental health diversion and gives courts more discretion when considering diversion. Among other things, it requires courts to find a defendant “will not pose a substantial and undue risk to the physical safety of another person if treated in the community.”
The new law goes into effect Jan. 1. For now, Navarro’s ruling sheds light on existing law and limitations placed on judges when considering mental health diversion.
“If this court were to deny mental health diversion every time a petitioner is accused of domestic violence, threatening to kill a person or brandishing a weapon, the court would, in effect, unilaterally and unlawfully redefine and expand the list of crimes excluded from mental health diversion by the Legislature,” Navarro wrote in her order. “This court’s mandate is to interpret and apply the law, not to rewrite it.”
Calabrese is accused of attacking a woman identified in records as Jane Doe. The two had been dating for two months, according to court records, which indicated the woman is married to a different person. They were at Calabrese’s home late July 31 into early Aug. 1 when he accused Doe of cheating on him, struck her with a belt buckle and slapped her twice, according to Navarro’s order and prosecution motion.
Doe left but returned because she didn’t have a way home. She accepted a ride from Calabrese, who stopped near Dutton and Todd roads and continued yelling her, prosecutors said. He’s accused of hitting her several times, pulling her hair, holding a knife against her and saying she better not call police or he’d kill her and poison her dog.
He continued attacking while refusing to let Doe go, prosecutors wrote. She eventually got out of the vehicle and walked for 10 minutes before Calabrese drove up again. He had her phone and, with no other option, she got back into the vehicle only to be attacked further, this time with the cup and knife, according to court records.
Prosecutors say this is when Calabrese parked his vehicle in a remote area and wrapped both hands around Doe’s throat as she struggled to breathe.
“The absolute life and death peril associated with strangling another person, even briefly, cannot be understated,” Blade wrote. “The act of strangling the victim while expressly threatening to end her life already elevates the overall hazardousness of this case to unacceptable levels.”
He wrote Calabrese brought Doe to her home about 5 a.m. Aug. 1 and her husband took her to a hospital, where injuries included bruises and scrapes over her entire body, a fractured nose, lacerations to her head and a broken rib.
Calabrese was arrested later that day and, by early September, posted bail, got remanded into custody and received pretrial release. Vaghti said the matter is still ongoing and she could not discuss specific details from that night.
He applied for diversion in October and was evaluated by a doctor and clinician who found, among other things, histories of mental illness. But they differed on existing levels and whether there was a link — or a nexus — between the illnesses and the Aug. 1 events.
In a previous argument for pretrial release, Vaghti, wrote he had PTSD from numerous traumatic events, including a stabbing at work. She described him as an engineer who worked with a local municipality’s planning and development department. A Santa Rosa spokesperson confirmed to The Press Democrat this week Calabrese had been employed until November 2025 but not whether he resigned or was terminated.
In arguing for diversion, Vaghti wrote prosecutors ignored the doctor’s findings of a nexus. Furthermore, Calabrese has been receiving mental health treatment and not committed any violations since being released from custody last year.
“As shown by way of his behaviors before and during the offense, (the doctor’s) report and Mr. Calabrese’s efforts to date, Mr. Calabrese is eligible for mental health treatment under the delineated criteria … ,” Vaghti wrote.
Prosecutors point to jailhouse calls in which he told a relative he would use mental health to avoid accountability and spoke harshly about Jane Doe. The doctor, however, noted a mental illness would not deter someone from expressing concern about jail or imprisonment.
In weighing arguments, Navarro noted, among other things, the doctor had a more thorough evaluation than the clinician and prosecutors hadn’t disproven a link between Calabrese’s condition and the offense. Furthermore, he hadn’t done anything wrong since his release, his condition is treatable and the Aug. 1 incidents “are not currently” listed among crimes that disqualify someone from diversion.
She ordered Calabrese to undergo treatment that includes anger management classes, attendance at domestic violence discussions and weekly therapy.
His regular court proceedings continued while Navarro reviewed the matter and Calabrese attended a preliminary hearing June 29, when Judge Kristine Burk ordered him to stand trial on the charges.
Navarro issued her ruling on mental health diversion three days later.
You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com.
