FLORIDA—A Pensacola man has pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a federal judge.
Stephen Jay Thorn, 66, pleaded guilty to interstate transmission of a threat to injure a Federal District Court Judge. Thorn faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison.
United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announced the plea on Thursday. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
According to court documents, on October 24, 2022, Mr Thorn, reportedly unhappy with a judicial opinion he had read online, made an interstate telephone call to the District Court Judge’s chambers.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida, Mr Thorn is said to have left a “vulgar, obscenity-laden voicemail threatening to harm the judge as well as members of the judge’s immediate family.”
The United States Marshals Service investigated this case, which is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Joe Wheeler III.
