Man without power for six days made death threats, police say

A 73-year-old Pasadena man threatened to kill city employees if they did not restore his power after last week's windstorm, and he was arrested Tuesday morning, police said.

A day after Geoffrey Commons made threats to people on a Pasadena city hotline, he showed up at the Pasadena city manager's office, where he caused a disturbance, said Pasadena Police Lt. Rick Aversano.

Commons is an attorney and former member of the California Energy Commission. In 1993, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Pasadena Board of Education.

In an interview with KTLA News, Commons expressed frustration about being without power for six days. He denied that he intended to hurt anyone.

"I did not think I was going to get arrested," he said.

Commons said he was also frustrated with not being able to get through to officials about the blackout.

"Nobody gave a damn," he said.

Pasadena officials said power has been restored to 98% of customers.

-- Tiffany Kelly and Rong-Gong Lin II