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"I know where you live now, I'm coming to rape your family," Michael Marotta, 26, of Sewell (Gloucester County) texted the woman using an anonymizing messaging service, they said.
Marotta "used racial epithets" in the texts, which included "eat my bullets," according to an FBI complaint.
Taking a deal from the government rather than face trial, Marotta pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on Tuesday, March 8 to making threatening interstate communications.
Marotta claimed he didn't know the victim, who federal authorities said didn't know him.
“The vile threats issued by this defendant have no place in civilized society,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The department, and specifically the Civil Rights Division, will use all tools at our disposal to ensure that people who interfere with the rights of others will be brought to justice.”
“We at the U.S. Attorney’s Office take seriously our obligation to protect the civil rights of all individuals,” said U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron of the District of Maryland. “We will not tolerate racially-based threats and will prosecute such crimes to the fullest extent of the law.”
“We encourage anyone who believes their civil rights were violated to report it to their local police department or FBI field office,” Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinksi of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office added.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Cunningham the District of Maryland and Trial Attorney Thomas Johnson of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division secured the plea.
U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher scheduled sentencing for May 25.
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