You blockhead!: Charlie Brown charged with threats

Former child actor Peter Robbins, the voice of Charlie Brown in several Peanuts cartoons, allegedly has threatened violence against his girlfriend, along with a La Jolla, California plastic surgeon who performed breast augmentation on her and a San Diego police sergeant who arrested him.

Peter Robbins, 56, is a resident of Oceanside, California, near San Diego. He pleaded not guilty Wednesday to 10 counts of making criminal threats and two counts of stalking in connection with a series of unrelated incidents.

San Diego Superior Court Judge David Szumowski set bail at $550,000 at the prosecutor's request. Robbins faces nine years in prison.

At the San Ysidro, California border crossing, United States Customs and Border Protection agents arrested him Sunday night on felony warrants in connection with threats against his girlfriend.

He voiced Charlie Brown in several 1960s Peanuts productions on the big and small screens, including the TV specials A Charlie Brown Christmas and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and the movie A Boy Named Charlie Brown.

Robbins began voicing Charlie Brown when he was 9, he said in a 2008 interview at Comic-Con in San Diego, At 14, his voice changed, he said.

He uses the name Peter "Charlie Brown" Robbins on his Facebook page, and he responds to fans who have commented how they love the Peanuts character.

Several people posted comments Wednesday on Robbins' page, saying "You can't arrest Charlie Brown! Release him at once!" and "Where's the Red Baron (Snoopy) when you need him?"

On October 16, he posted a picture of himself hugging a tan boxer-type dog, accompanied by a note saying that "happiness is sitting on the beach with Snoopy." That dog died, and Robbins then acquired a small pit bull puppym according to neighbors at his condominium.

Robbins' manager, who asked that she not be named, said in an e-mail that he recently appeared at the Good Grief Camp, for children whose parent died at war, held on the Midway museum. Robbins' most recent voice work was narrating the It's a Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown iPad app, she added.

According to the affidavit to his arrest warrant, Robbins is suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer.

"Both victims describe him as a desperate man who has nothing to lose," Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth McClutchey told the judge.

Robbins' attorney, Marc Kohnen, said the belief that his client has nothing to lose is "absolutely not true."

"He's got a lot to lose by way of reputation," Kohnen said following the court hearing. "Mr. Robbins is an eccentric, but he's not a threat to anyone. He's distraught. He's an award-winning performer. We've grown up watching him."

Robbins has shown increasingly erratic behavior, and this and his terminal illness made him a danger to the community, a district attorney investigator said in court documents. Recently he bought a .22 caliber gun at an Oceanside gun shop and shooting range, but had not yet acquired the weapon, the court documents say.

The child actor's run-ins with the law began in December, when police responded to a domestic violence incident between him and his 33-year-old girlfriend in a Carlsbad, California hotel. According to the affidavit, he later sent many voicemails to her threatening to kill her and her son.

"You better hide.... I'm coming for you. You better run," Robbins said in one message, according to the affidavit. "I will kill your son," he warned in another. The San Diego Union-Tribune is not naming his girlfriend because she is the alleged victim of domestic violence.

The plastic surgeon, Dr. Lori Saltz, later received a temporary restraining order against Robbins in a January 3 Vista Superior Court hearing. In court papers, she said that Robbins threatened to "break her in half" after he didn't like the results of the cosmetic surgery he did on his girlfriend.

He was jailed January 13 after allegedly telling San Diego police officers that he was going to kill the sergeant who arrested him, Detective Gary Hassen said.

"The next time I see that sergeant who put handcuffs on me, I am going to kill him," Robbins told the officer, the affidavit said. "You can quote me on that. I'm going to kill him when I see him."

Robbins was initially held because a Hotel La Jolla restaurant manager said that he'd skipped out on a food bill. Arrested that night on charges connected with the threats against the doctor, he posted $50,000 bail the next day.

An executive at La Jolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre, where Saltz practices, said Wednesday that legal counsel advised them not to comment on Saltz's request for the restraining order that covers herself, her husband and two children.

Saltz wonders if Robbins' has metasticized in his brain, possibly causing his violent reactions.

At his condo Wednesday, a pumpkin was on the porch near the front door. His landlady said he gave notice in December of his intention to leave.





Peter Robbins in his Oceanside, California home in July 2010. (Bill Wechter/San Diego Union-Tribune)