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Danke
05-28-2009, 08:10 AM
Threats against judges, prosecutors escalate

By Jerry Markon

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — Threats against the nation's judges and prosecutors have increased sharply, prompting hundreds to get 24-hour protection from armed U.S. marshals. Many federal judges are altering their routes to work, installing security systems at home, shielding their addresses by paying bills at the courthouse or refraining from registering to vote. Some even pack weapons on the bench.

The problem has become so pronounced that a high-tech "threat management" center opened recently in Arlington, Va., where about 25 marshals and analysts monitor a 24-hour number for reporting threats, use sophisticated mapping software to track those being threatened and tap into a classified database linked to the FBI and CIA.

"I live with a constant heightened sense of awareness," said John Adams, a federal judge in Ohio who began taking firearms classes after a federal judge's family was slain in Chicago and takes a pistol to the courthouse on weekends. "If I'm going to carry a firearm, I'd better know how to use it."

The threats and other harassing communications against federal-court personnel have more than doubled in the past six years, from 592 to 1,278, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Worried federal officials blame disgruntled defendants whose anger is fueled by the Internet; terrorism and gang cases that bring more violent offenders into court; frustration at the economic crisis; and the rise of the "sovereign citizen" movement — a loose collection of tax protesters, white supremacists and others who don't respect federal authority.:rolleyes:

Much of the concern was fueled by the 2005 slaying of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and mother in their Chicago home and a rampage 11 days later by an Atlanta rape suspect, who killed a judge, the court stenographer and a deputy. Several pipe bombs exploded outside the federal courthouse in San Diego last year, and a drug defendant wielding a razor blade briefly choked a federal prosecutor during sentencing in New York. In March, a homicide suspect attacked a judge in a California courtroom and was shot to death by police.

The Justice Department and FBI continue to investigate the Seattle slaying of Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Wales, who was shot Oct. 11, 2001, in the basement of his Queen Anne home. From the outset, investigators suspected a commercial-airline pilot whom Wales had prosecuted in a fraud case because the case continued to generate ill feelings even after charges were dropped. Federal marshals immediately placed another prosecutor in the fraud case under 24-hour guard.

Although attacks on federal-court personnel have not increased, the explosion of vitriolic threats has prompted a growing law-enforcement crackdown aimed at preventing them. The marshals service, which protects judges and prosecutors, says several hundred require 24-hour guard for days, weeks or months each year, depending on the case.

"We have to make sure that every judge and prosecutor can go to work every day and carry out the rule of law," said Michael Prout, assistant director of judicial security for the marshals, who have trained hundreds of police and deputies to better protect local court officials.

"It's the core of our civil liberties," Prout said.

State court officials are seeing the same trend, although no numbers are available. "There's a higher level of anger, whether it's defendants or their families," said Timothy Fautsko, who coordinates security education for the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Va., and said threats come from violent offenders along with divorce, probate and other civil litigants.

Threats are emerging in cases large and small, on the Internet, by telephone, in letters and in person. In Washington, D.C., two men have pleaded not guilty to charges of vowing to kill a federal prosecutor and kidnap her adult son if she didn't drop a homicide investigation. The judge in the CIA leak case received threatening letters when he ordered prison time for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff. A man near Richmond, Va., was charged with mailing threats to a prosecutor over three traffic offenses. The face of a federal judge in Washington, D.C., was put in a rifle's cross hairs on the Internet after he issued a controversial environmental ruling, judicial sources said.

Hundreds of threats cascaded into the chambers of John Roll, the chief U.S. district judge in Arizona, in February after he allowed a lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants against a rancher to go forward.

"They cursed him out, threatened to kill his family, said they'd come and take care of him. They really wanted him dead," said a law-enforcement official who heard the calls — which came from as far as Richmond and Baltimore — but spoke on condition of anonymity because no one has been charged.

David Gonzales, a U.S. marshal in Arizona, said deputies put the judge under 24-hour protection for about a month, guarding his home, screening his mail and escorting him to court, to the gym and to Mass.

"Some deputies went to church more in a week than they had in their lives," Gonzales said.

The stress nearly overcame Michael Cicconetti, a municipal-court judge in Painesville, Ohio, after police played a tape for him of a defendant in a minor tax case plotting to blow up the judge's house. Cicconetti evacuated his family for a terrifying week in which they were under guard and stayed at friends' houses.

"I couldn't go to work for two weeks. I was too shaken up. I couldn't think," he said. The judge now has a security system in his home — and a stun gun within reach in court.

Sibley Reynolds, an Alabama state court judge who prosecutors said was threatened last year by the son of a defendant convicted of stealing about $3,000 from a humane shelter, packs the real thing — a Colt automatic pistol. He keeps it under his robe, in his waistband.

"I don't go anywhere without my security with me," Reynolds said.

Court officials could not say how often judges arm themselves. But the marshals have installed home-security systems for most federal judges since the Lefkow incident, and many are removing their photos from court Web sites and shielding their home addresses.

The Judicial Conference of the United States, the policymaking arm headed by the Supreme Court chief justice, soon will distribute a DVD with security tips. It will be called Project 365, for security 365 days a year.

"Judges today are far more security-conscious than they ever have been," said Henry Hudson, a federal judge in Richmond who is working on the DVD. "I don't think it's at the point where it's interfering with their judgment and dedication to their jobs."

Agent CSL
05-28-2009, 08:48 AM
Maybe they should start upholding the constitution.

Danke
05-28-2009, 08:55 AM
Maybe they should start upholding the constitution.

Nah, just print some more money, pass another Patriot Act and hire more Marshals.

Brooklyn Red Leg
05-28-2009, 01:30 PM
Worried federal officials blame disgruntled defendants whose anger is fueled by the Internet; terrorism and gang cases that bring more violent offenders into court; frustration at the economic crisis; and the rise of the "sovereign citizen" movement — a loose collection of tax protesters, white supremacists and others who don't respect federal authority.:rolleyes:

Absolute unmitigated douchebaggery, but that doesn't surprise me coming from the Feds. Maybe if the court system wasn't a stacked deck that squashed the little people, judges who act like God on Earth and expect to be obeyed/worshipped wouldn't find themselves in fear. I dunno, maybe if assholes like that thug in black robes from the Ninth Circus that sentenced Irwin Schiff for failure to pay for his Serfdom weren't scum of the Earth, we wouldn't have this problem.

Dequeant
05-28-2009, 05:00 PM
..................

kathy88
05-28-2009, 05:18 PM
Respect Federal Authority = Putz

Reason
05-28-2009, 05:36 PM
Maybe they should start upholding the constitution.


Nah, just print some more money, pass another Patriot Act and hire more Marshals.


/me doesn't respect most federal authority.

+3

Objectivist
05-28-2009, 05:39 PM
Maybe they should start upholding the constitution.

Hmm, I was going to say the very same thing.:cool:

PRB
07-19-2020, 10:57 PM
threats against federal judges are extremely rare, but nonetheless, it's happened again today.

Judge Esther Salas's family was attacked.

Swordsmyth
07-20-2020, 02:45 AM
threats against federal judges are extremely rare, but nonetheless, it's happened again today.

Judge Esther Salas's family was attacked.
Internet went abuzz with theories about the firing with some people even linking it to the Jeffrey Epstein case which was assigned to the judge four days ago, saying "it's not a coincidence". One user tweeted, “This story is CRAZY! Federal Judge, Esther Salas, who was just assigned the Jeffery Epstein/Deutsche Bank case filed July 15th just had a gunman dressed as a Federal Express delivery driver enter her home shoot her son and husband, son dead, husband in critical condition. NUTS!” A few even worried about her safety, “I can't believe I'm automatically thinking of the AG of the US, but I am. My thoughts were very much with her when I heard she was assigned the case. She has to have 24/7 protection. Why wasn't this given to her? Oh this poor, dear woman.” Some even made dragged Donald Trump into it by tweeting, “Terrible news! I smell a rat! #deutschebank Justice Anthony Kennedy “suddenly” retires. His son gave Trump $$loans when no other bank did. Bank guilty of money laundering. Now Jeffrey Epstein is added in the mix. NO COINCIDENCE! Prayers 4 Judge Salas family.”
According to the Daily Mail, the shooting came days after the judge was assigned a case with links to Jefferey Epstein though there is no confirmation the attack is linked to her work.

More at: https://meaww.com/judge-esther-salas-son-husband-shot-dead-working-on-jeffrey-epstein-case

Working Poor
07-20-2020, 03:28 AM
There are so many laws that are against the constitution. There are so many judges that are willing to judge people based on these unconstitutional laws that it should be very dangerous to be a judge.
I think the judge who son and husband were attacked is up against some powerful people. She probably would have been shot too if she had been upstairs when it happened. I think most judges who are threatened are threatened by people who have power and influence. especially when the threat is successfully executed.

Judges who judge people for breaking an unconstitutional law should be at more risk than they are. Unfortunately they get away with it every day. Ron Paul supporters missed the boat. I know they tried to get him elected but they needed to do something that the media could not ignore like burn down DC.