TULSA, Okla. (CN) — A Connecticut man on Friday admitted threatening an Oklahoma judge, prosecutor and police involved in the criminal case against a white policewoman who shot and killed unarmed Terence Crutcher in a viral video last year.
Jeffrey A. Stevens, 60, of East Lyme, pleaded guilty to five counts of interstate communications with the intent to injure. He faces up to five years in federal prison and up to $250,000 in fines.
Tulsa police Officer Betty Shelby, 42, pleaded not guilty four months ago to first-degree manslaughter. She was recorded in helicopter and dashboard camera footage leaving her police cruiser near Crutcher's disabled SUV on Sept. 16.
Crutcher, who was black, is seen walking away from her with both arms in the air before he was shot dead.
Shelby’s attorneys have said she thought Crutcher was on drugs and she fired out of fear he was reaching for a weapon in the driver’s window of his car. No weapon was found on Crutcher or in his car.
Prosecutors say that between Sept. 19 and Sept. 22, Stevens submitted around 10 online citizen complaints to the Tulsa Police Department.
“The revolution starts now. The psycho cunt who never should have been given a badge, as well as all her cohorts who patted her on the back and said 'Good Shoot' are going to be executed unless you put them behind bars on MURDER charges," Stevens wrote on Sept. 12, according to a 13-page sworn affidavit by Lissa Kennedy with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.
“Additionally, unless the Prosecutor & the Judge deny bail, they too will be executed. America is NOT a Police State in which any mental defective owning a badge can murder at will. It's time for America to make a stand and it will. Do the right thing or die. There are no other choices."
Agent Kennedy said that several hours later, Stevens posted that the police chief is "corrupt" and is "going to be killed."
"Not only has he hired a staff full of psychotic, racist, murderous scum and refused to put a murderer behind bars, he has also presided over and created an extortion ring," Stevens wrote, according to the affidavit. "He must be and IS GOING TO BE killed. 'Justice For All,' right? You seriously thought you could get away with fucking people forever? Death is coming. Justice is coming."
On Sept. 22, Kennedy said, Stevens posted that Tulsa police have a "documented history of planting drugs on travelers" and that citizens would kill "cops, prosecutors, judges, [and] family members."
Federal agents say Stevens was arrested in December 2005 for felony first-degree threatening and misdemeanor reckless endangerment. He was convicted in May 2008 and received a one year suspended sentence on the felony charge and a six month suspended sentence on the misdemeanor.
Kennedy said Stevens was interviewed by federal agents in 2012 and 2014 for posting threatening and inflammatory messages to U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, U.S. Rep. John Boehner, Fox News and Wayne LaPierre with the National Rifle Association.
U.S. Attorney Danny C. Williams Sr. said Friday that Stevens intended the threats to be interpreted “as true threats impacting the hiring practices with the Tulsa Police Department and decision-making process within the Tulsa County” judicial system.
“Jeffrey Stevens used the internet to intentionally disseminate threats to kill in order to impact the professional responsibilities and duties of those involved in the prosecution of the Terence Crutcher case," Williams said in a statement. "This type of criminal conduct will not be tolerated.”
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