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WASHINGTON COUNTY---When former Ohio attorney Elsebeth Baumgartner sent email messages to retired visiting judge Richard Markus telling him he was corrupt, protected public officials and asked him to comply with the law, she was sentenced to eight years in state prison on charges of intimidation and retaliation and no threats or extortion were made or alleged.
In New York, when inmate Dennis Nelson wrote threatening letters to judges and other public officials in 2002, including making a death threat to the State Police investigator who was investigating the case, he was sentenced to three years in state prison.
Three years for threats, eight years for exercising free speech and stating an opinion would seem to be disparate prosecution and sentencing.
Now Dennis Nelson is at it again, this time facing 22 felony counts for sending letters from the Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock between April and November. Nelson has been charged with falsely reporting an incident, attempted grand larceny and coercion.
Nelson, 34, has allegedly made extortion attempts and sent death threats to President Bush and his children, the governors of three states, the director of the FBI, state and federal judges, the superintendent of the State Police, the Cayuga County Sheriff and others. Some letters demanded money from the recipients, threatening that if they didn't produce, he would "chop you into pieces". He threatened some officials with killing their wife and kidnapping their kids or blowing up their house. He told them that he was soon to be discharged from prison or that he had others on the "outside" who would carry out his threats.
Nelson allegedly threatened every federal judge in upstate New York, telling them that "I go home within 15 to 26 months. When I fined (sic) you I'm going to cut you into 10 thousand pieces then I'm going to kill your family".
Nelson signs most his correspondence with his own name although he has signed some "Osama bin Laden".
Federal court records indicate more than 50 civil matters brought by Nelson against various individuals.
Federal court records also indicate that Nelson is scheduled to be sentenced on June 6 in U.S. District Court in Rochester on a plea agreement reached in December, pleading guilty to sending threatening mail to U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman and U.S. District Judge Charles Siragusa and his wife.
"This is a bomb threat. If you try any thing you will be killed for good. This is not a joke. I want 300,000.00 dollars sent to me well I', here at Great Meadow Corr. Fac. If you dare do something your wife I will kill first then it will be the rest of your family", Nelson wrote to Feldman.
He pleaded guilty to several counts of the indictment including sending a threat to injure with intent to extort. On that charge, he faces a maximum possible sentence of 20 years, a fine of $250,000 or both.
Nelson has undergone several competency hearings and found competent.
He has been arraigned in Washington County Court on the latest charges. He is serving sentences at Great Meadow for arson and throwing bodily fluids of corrections officers at the Cayuga County Jail. 2-24-07
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© 2007 North
Country Gazette
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