A former California mayor — a leading progressive Democrat in the area — was reportedly arrested Saturday over multiple felony child sex crimes.
Robert Emmanuel Jacob, 44, was arrested and charged with five felony counts and one misdemeanor involving a child in their early teens over the weekend, according to The Post Millennial.
He is currently being held without bail.
Jacob served as one of the Sebastapol, California city council members from 2012 to 2016, and was appointed as mayor of the Bay Area city for a year-long stint in 2013. He reportedly stepped down in 2016 because of a family illness.
As a longtime cannabis advocate and businessman, Jacob was named one of North Bay Business Journals’s 2013 Forty Under 40. He was also profiled in 2016 by The New York Times in an article titled, “In California, a Mayor’s Rise Is a Sign of the Times.”
Since stepping down, Jacob had been an outspoken supporter of the progressive “Defund the Police” movement. A Facebook account that reportedly belongs to Jacob praised rioters during the 2020 summer unrest as “warriors.”
Minneapolis is banning choke holds by the police. Another thing, Black Lives Matter, the protest, and yes, rioting have…
Posted by Robert Jacob on Friday, June 5, 2020
The charges against Jacob include felony transportation of a child for lewd and lascivious acts, arranging a meeting for sexual purposes with a person believed to be underage, sexual penetration of a child under 16-years-old, and other “horrible” crimes.
Because of the young age of the alleged victim, their identity is being kept private.
Investigators said the case has sent “shockwaves” through the area, Sebastapol Police Chief Kevin Kilgore said. He told local news station ABC7 the police believe the crimes began in December 2019. Police said they received their first tip on March 30, 2021 and acted quickly.
“It’s traumatic for anyone, it takes a tremendous amount of courage to report a crime such as this,” Kilgore told the station. “It’s traumatic for our community, it’s traumatic for the survivor of the sexual assault, it’s traumatic for everyone and it weighs a toll on our community,” said Kilgore.
Sebastapol police are asking for anyone with further information to contact them at 707-829-4400.
The Horn editorial team