State senator seeks restraining order on anti-vaccine protester

A state senator has filed for a restraining order against the woman alleged to have thrown menstrual blood from a balcony onto the Senate floor, spattering several legislators senators while protesting limits on unvaccinated children in public schools.

A hearing on the request by Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, represented by Cara L. Jenkins of the Office of Legislative Counsel, has been set for Nov. 22 in Monning v. Dalelio, 70006717 (Sac. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 30, 2019).

According to numerous news reports and eyewitness accounts, on Sept. 13 Rebecca Dalelio threw a menstrual device while yelling, "That's for the dead babies!" Several senators were hit with what lab tests later confirmed to be human blood. Scores of people were in the Capitol at the time protesting Gov. Gavin Newsom's signing of SB 276 days earlier. That law places new limits on the medical exemptions many parents had been using to enroll their unvaccinated children in public schools.

Dalelio also faces potential criminal charges, including vandalism and assault. Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert's office said prosecutors had not yet decided whether to file criminal charges but confirmed Dalelio faces a court hearing Nov. 18.

On that same day, Kenneth Austin Bennett also faces a hearing on a misdemeanor assault charge in People v. Bennett, 19MI019014 (Sac. Super. Ct., filed Oct. 22, 2019). In an incident streamed live on Facebook in August, Bennett shoved Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, on a street just outside the Capitol. Pan is the author of SB 276 and SB 277, a 2015 law limiting personal belief vaccine exemptions for children in public schools.

Bennett is due back in court for a hearing on Pan's request for a permanent restraining order on Nov. 15 in Pan v. Bennett, 70006362 (Sac. Super. Ct., filed Aug. 28, 2019).

-- Malcolm Maclachlan