The alleged death threats made against Stanislaus County Supervisor Channce Condit by Ceres stand-up comedian Anthony Krayenhagen are believed linked to the aftermath of a Sept. 9 incident at a Modesto cigar lounge.

Krayenhagen was arrested Nov. 20 and booked into the county jail on charges of making death threats to an elected official. He is being held behind bars in lieu of $750,000 bail.

Condit dropped by the Che’root Cigar Lounge in downtown Modesto on his birthday which happened to feature comedy night where Krayenhagen, known as Anthony K, and others took the stage. By coincidence, said Condit, Motec Sanchez the founder of the Stockton-based opinion and news site 209 Times also dropped in with a staff member. Condit and Sanchez are acquainted with one another and sat down in an area near the door.

During a comedy set, two women had made their way over to where Condit and Sanchez and his friend were seated and smoking cigars. Krayenhagen called out for them to quiet down, saying they were interfering with the comics.

Sanchez was apparently familiar with one of the women who in the past has given Krayenhagen a hard time in jest.

Krayenhagen then reportedly said to Sanchez and his staffer: “I know you guys are just out there trying to get some p---y but leave those prostitutes alone until after the show. There’s just like 20 minutes left.”

Sanchez said he was offended and felt insulted for the women and wanted to speak up but left things alone.

Condit said he was an uninvolved party who witnessed what happened.

Later Krayenhagen came over to the group and inferred that Sanchez didn’t belong because he was from Stockton where “they have all the money.”

According to Condit, when Krayenhagen was finished, he brought over a tin cup and asked him to tip the comedians for disrespecting the comedians. Sanchez admitted that he told Krayenhagen to “get the f--- out of here.” 

Krayenhagen grew more aggressive with Sanchez, even calling him a white supremacist. Sanchez is mixed Mexican and European.

Sanchez and party then left the lounge, vowing to never return.

Condit said not once did he interject himself into the argument and was an “innocent bystander.”

“Krayenhagen went out of his way to entice a physical altercation with Sanchez,” Condit said. “And I was a witness to that and I was in proximity to that.”

“Krayenhagen just honestly appears to hate white people,” Condit commented.

Days after the incident, Condit volunteered to bring in Sanchez to meet with the lounge manager to smooth things over.

“I was trying to be a peacemaker on the 11th because I knew Sanchez and obviously I knew the people who own Che’root,” Condit said.

During the meeting Sanchez asked the establishment to stop featuring Krayenhagen. He brought up Krayenhagen’s racial epithets but the club owners acknowledged, “that’s part of his whole standup thing, you know, he hates white people,” said Condit. 

Condit then suggested the club place Krayenhagen on a three-month hiatus to let things cool down.

Ultimately Che’root declined to ban Krayenhagen so Sanchez said he wouldn’t be returning. Owner Gina Rossi suggested that Sanchez could just skip Tuesdays’ comedy night events.

The 209 Times ran an account of the encounter on Sept. 16 which stated that Sanchez “checked” Krayenhagen for disrespecting women in the club. The piece also quoted Sanchez as slamming Krayenhagen for telling “the same old tired jokes for 10 years.”

The animosity between the two grew. 

Krayenhagen approached Condit months later to see if he could get Sanchez to remove the article from the internet but Condit explained that he had no control over the 209 Times.

“I told him I couldn’t and I didn’t have authority to do that … but that set him off.”

In an Oct. 11 appearance at the Che’root which was video recorded, Krayenhagen ramped up his personal attacks on Sanchez, accusing him of dying his hair, using Botox and calling him a “bully.” He also insinuated that Sanchez is gay and called him a “scum blackmailer.”

The video was released online by The Cabal, a Stockton based satirical news site run by political foes of Sanchez. In that video, Krayenhagen suggests he was a “hero” to the women at the club that night, saying: “Them ladies was over out there f---ing with old 209 Times and Chase (sic) Condit. Okay? They was sitting there. Now I don’t know if you guys know anything about the Condits. I do. I’m f------g 38 years old. I grew up in Ceres, okay? We know about the mother f-----g Gary Condit and Chandra Levy. We was just trying to save those two b-----s. So really we were the heroes because we didn’t want to find those two b----es in a New York park with a cold case file. You feel me?”

Channce Condit said the barbs about his grandfather’s 2001 scandal were incidental to what happened at the club on Sept. 9.

“He didn’t know I was there that night and that video wasn’t from that evening,” clarified Condit. “And that’s where people are distorting this whole thing that he made remarks that night and then I took it as a threat and now I’m getting back at him two months later. No, that’s not the case.”

It was Krayenhagen’s phone conversation with Condit that got him in trouble. He now faces up to a six-month jail sentence, a fine of up to $1,000, or both.

Condit said the comedian went into “a long profanity laced rant” during the phone conversation.

Condit’s version of Krayenhagen’s remarks during the phone call went like this:  “I know people in these streets you never want to meet. I have the streets and they are riding with me. You will never have the streets Channce! You don’t want to find out what can happen white boy if you test me. You either leave me alone or you will find out! Just leave me alone Channce! You don’t want it with me you b---- a-- white boy. It’s on-sight with you whenever I see you next. I promise you. It’s on-sight, I promise! You better hope I don’t see you! You and your white p---- a-- friends are green lit. All of you are green lit in these streets.”

Condit hung up and reported the call to Sheriff Jeff Dirkse. The next day detectives obtained an arrest warrant.

Less than 24 hours later, on Nov. 14, Krayenhagen called Condit again saying he was “green lit.” The term can be interpreted as an authorization to harm or carry out a hit.

Condit said he didn’t respond and feared for his life in danger.

At one point Krayenhagen posted this on social media: “Supervisor Channce Condit told me yesterday on the phone he’d stop watching my profiles and he had no issues with me, yet the cyberstalking continues. Given his family’s present presence in the Chanda Levy controversy, I want it understood that I won’t be an easy case – just clarity.”

Condit said the comedian’s “behavior seems very unhinged and unpredictable.”

Jessica Graves, an attorney who is not connected to the Krayenhagen case, told the Sacramento CBS-TV affiliate that the arrest: “just seems completely blown out of proportion. It’s like, the comment is being so dramatically inflated into something it never was.

“I think what’s absolutely missing here is the immediacy,” Graves commented. “The threat has to be clear, immediate, and specific and you just don’t have that here.”

But Condit said that Graves made her comment while being unaware that Krayenhagen showed up at his office after making his threats.