BIG NEWS IN NEW JERSEY: A Brick man has pleaded guilty to sending threatening communications to employees of five civil rights organisations that work to improve opportunities for Latinos in the United States.
Vincent Johnson, who went by the pseudonym ‘Devilfish,’ admitted to sending the threats between November 2006 and February 2009 to employees of the LatinoJustice Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Council of La Raza, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders.
The threatening language used by Johnson included statements such as: ‘Do you have a last will and testament? If not, better get one real soon’; ‘I am giving you fair warning that your presence and position is being tracked…you are dead meat…along with anyone else in your organisation’; and ‘After reading the article below can you give me simply one good reason why someone should not put a bullet between your eyes for your actions that are promoting lawlessness in this country?’
The Justice Department announced today that Johnson pleaded guilty in federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, to multiple charges related to the series of threatening communications.
Johnson admitted that his threats were intended to intimidate the victims in order to prevent them from aiding persons of Latino descent.
Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said that threats of hate-fuelled violence because of someone’s skin colour, language or country of origin would not be tolerated in the United States.
Johnson pleaded guilty to five counts of interfering with the exercise of civil rights, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
District Court Judge Anne E. Thompson scheduled Johnson’s sentencing for January 26, 2011.
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