Santa Rosa mom will not be charged in alleged bullying incident

SANTA ROSA, Calif. -- No charges will be filed by Sonoma County prosecutors against a Santa Rosa mother accused of injuring a 12-year-old boy she believed was bullying her daughter at school.

Chief Deputy District Attorney William Brockley told Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Dana Simonds this morning the prosecution cannot prove a case against 30-year-old Delia Garcia-Bratcher beyond a reasonable doubt.

Simonds discharged Garcia-Bratcher and exonerated her bail.

Garcia-Bratcher allegedly confronted the boy at the Olivet Elementary Cy Charter School on Willowside Road in unincorporated harter School on Willowside Road in unincorporated Sonoma County west of Santa Rosa on May 16.

She was accused by the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office of grabbing the boy by the throat and confronting him during the lunch hour about bullying her 9-year-old daughter who was in third grade at the time.

She was arrested on suspicion of inflicting injury to a child and posted $30,000 bail at the county jail. She appeared in Sonoma County Superior Court three times before today while the prosecution said it was still interviewing witnesses and investigating the incident.

Outside the courtroom, Garcia-Bratcher said she was happy the court proceedings are over and was grateful to her attorney Ben Adams.

"I feel like they withheld a lot of information and tried to take me down for no reason. They knew I was innocent," Garcia-Bratcher said after the brief court hearing this morning.

She said sheriff's investigators tried to make her admit the alleged injury to the boy and "put words in my mouth."

Garcia-Bratcher said she has received threats from people online, lost sleep and had to go to a hospital for medication for insomnia.

"It made me sick and depressed," she said.

The mother of six said her children were afraid she was going to jail.

Sheriff's officials said the boy Garcia-Bratcher allegedly injured had red marks consistent with being grabbed in the neck area by an adult.

Adams, her attorney, said the defense had witnesses who saw the boy make the marks himself.

"Two children saw him and heard him say he was going to get me in trouble," Garcia-Bratcher said.

Adams also said the alleged assault victim's mother is a Sonoma County corrections officer.

Garcia-Bratcher said she went to the school to talk to the boy about bullying her daughter.

"I didn't want to get him in trouble or make it a big issue and it backfired on me. I will never do it again. I will just file complaints and complaints and complaints. Next time I will let my kids handle it," Garcia-Bratcher said.

When asked to characterize the three-and-a-half-month investigation that ended without the filing of a complaint, Adams said, "Egg on a face as far as I'm concerned. Everyone rushed to judgment."