United States v. Williamson

83 F. Supp. 3d 394, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34870, 2015 WL 1285898
District Court, District of Columbia·Decided March 20, 2015·No. Criminal No. 2014-0151·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

OPINION ON SENTENCING

ROSEMARY M. COLLYER, United States District Judge

Jeff Henry Williamson represents himself, with appointed Standby Counsel. A jury convicted him of threatening to assault and murder an FBI agent with intent to retaliate against the agent on account of his performance of official duties, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 115(a)(1)(B). As he admitted, Mr. Williamson made a June 19, 2014 phone call to the Metropolitan Police Department 911 emergency service in Washington, D.C. In that call, he threatened to kill FBI Special Agent Brian Schmitt, who works in Denver, Colorado. With an offense level of 12 and criminal history category of III, the recommended sentence under the United States Sentencing Guidelines was in the range of 15-21 months, with a statutory maximum of 10 years (120 months). For the reasons set forth below, this Court sentenced Mr. Williamson to incarceration for 96 months and supervised release for 36 months.

I.FACTS

1. Mr. Williamson was in Denver, Colorado in 2005. He is a prolific writer of antigovernment diatribes, reportedly with over 200 websites. After he placed numerous threatening and harassing phone calls to the Denver office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, federal judges, and various federal offices, two members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force — SA Schmitt and Denver Police Officer William Gallegos — were assigned to investigate. As a result, Mr. Williamson was identified as the caller. Officer Gallegos issued a misdemeanor ticket to Mr. Williamson for Disturbance by Use of the Telephone on October 21, 2005. Mr. Williamson continued to make threatening and harassing phone calls, and Officer Gallegos issued two more tickets, on December 16, 2005 and on January 25, 2006. See Gov’t Trial Ex. 13-15 (Denver Tickets).

2. SA Schmitt signed all three citations as the complaining witness. Id. The tickets were later dismissed.

3. Mr. Williamson insists that the citations were bogus and were issued because of his political opinions, as expressed on his websites. For the past nine years, Mr. Williamson has mounted a relentless campaign to persuade federal officials to punish SA Schmitt for his involvement in issuing the tickets. Among others, he has written letters to:

• Inspector General of the Department of Justice Glenn Fine, dated May 18, 2009 and August 11, 2011;
• President Barack Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden, dated May 21, 2009;
• Unit Chief Angela L. Byers, Inspection Division of the FBI, dated June 25, 2009;
• Judge David Hittner, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, dated February 10, 2011; and
• U.S. Congress, House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, dated January 21, 2013.

See Gov’t Trial Ex. 24 (Stipulation); see also Def. Exhibit List [Dkt. 37], Attachments (Letters to Attorney General Eric Holder dated Aug. 19 and 27, 2009; Letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller dated Jan. 11, 2011; Letter to President Obama dated June 16, 2009; Letter to *396 FBI SA Chris Swecker dated June 16, 2009).

4. Mr. Williamson also' established an internet website, dojfbi.webs.com, which is largely devoted to his complaints about the tickets and his contention that the tickets are part of a government conspiracy of harassment and “gangstalking” against him — orchestrated by SA Schmitt— to stop him from exercising his right to free speech. 1

'5. On February 29, 2008, Mr. Williamson sent several emails to the Public Access Center Unit, FBI Headquarters, complaining about FBI harassment and threatening to kill agents. Presentence Investigation Report (PSR) [Dkt. 265] ¶ 36.

6. On May 15 and 21, 2008, Mr. Williamson called the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston, Texas, and left voice mail messages. In the messages, he identified himself as Jeff Williamson a/k/a DJ Blaze. 2 He stated, “The FBI would like me to get some gasoline cocktails and come down to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and f — ing throw a couple of them at the f — ing door” and “They want me to get a MAC 11 or MAC 10 and come down there and f — ing shoot the f — ing office up.” Id.

7. On June 27, 2008, Mr. Williamson sent an email threatening to blow up FBI headquarters:

I have been contacting and filing complaints for about eight years.
Several Officials are allowing this harassment, misconduct and abuse to continue even though after [my] financial destruction.
Please advise FBI Director Mueller I will take justice into my own hands and blow the front of the J. Edgar Hoover building off to get everyone’s attention — then CIA [¶] and DOJ. Please read the Texas penal code-threat by justifiable force, a necessity since the DOJ wants to protect these criminals.

Id. (errors in original). The email was sent from Mr. Williamson’s account at djblazeblog@yahoo.com to intelligence. hpsci@mail.house.gov. Id.

8. On July 1, 2008, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Williamson in the District Court in the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division charging Threatening Communications in Interstate Commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 875(c). See United States v. Williamson, Case No. 4:08-CR-539 (S.D.Texas) (Compl. July 1, 2008). An arrest warrant was issued. The basis for the Complaint was the June 27, 2008 threat to blow up FBI Headquarters. On- July 31, 2008, law enforcement located Mr. Williamson in Washington, D.C. He was arrested and remanded to Texas for trial.

9. An Indictment was returned against Mr. Williamson on the same charge, Threatening Communications in Interstate Commerce. See William *397 son, Case No. 4:08-CR-539 (Indictment Aug. 13, 2008). After a trial at which he represented himself with standby counsel, Mr. Williamson was convicted and sentenced to an above-Guidelines sentence — 42 months’ incarceration and 36 months’ supervised release on June 4,2010. See PSR ¶ 36.

10. On January 20, 2011, while he was serving his sentence, Mr. Williamson sent a letter to SA Schmitt complaining about the three tickets issued in Denver. The letter stated:

[Y]ou wrote me three frivolous tickets • in retaliation for me having published over 200+ political websites about U.S. Government corruption and coverups.... [You] wrote the tickets in retaliation for calling your supervisors, Steve Olson and [Special Agent in Charge] Richard Powers and reporting your harassment and stalking about my political websites. Obviously, you are engaged in misconduct as described above.

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United States v. Williamson, 83 F. Supp. 3d 394, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34870, 2015 WL 1285898 (D.D.C. 2015).

83 F. Supp. 3d 394 (United States v. Williamson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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