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PA Man Guilty Of Threatening To Commit ‘ISIS Style Beheading’ Of Federal Judges: Usdoj

A central Pennsylvania man has been found guilty of threatening to brutally murder federal and state judges, according to a release by the US Department of Justice.

Robert F Kennedy Department of Justice building sign on stone wall.

Robert F Kennedy Department of Justice building sign on stone wall.

Photo Credit: Jillian Pikora

Keith Thomas Dougherty, 66, of Harrisburg, was found guilty of one count of “Mailing Threatening Communications” and two counts of “Interstate Communication with Threat to Injure,” after a three-day trial, according to the release.

Dougherty made threats to injure and kill federal and state judges in the Middle and Western Districts of Pennsylvania in May 2017, March 2019 and January 2020, as stated in the release.

“To avoid any appearance of impropriety or conflict of interest, the case is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia,” according to court documents.

All he was found to be of sound mind despite by Dr. Bruke Tadesse, a psychologist retained by the Pretrial Services Office in July 2019, he later fired his attorney and filed two more “rambling and have incoherent” letters and claimed that his emails with his counsel had been "surreptitiously removed" by "FBI or NSA" from Defendant's email account, according to court documents.

These letters and emails were two among many he sent his counsel and to officials which mentioned “bashing of sculls” of three state court judges, “ISIS Style Beheading” of three district court judges and magistrates and threatened the lives of three circuit court judges by “AR 15’s,” according to the USDOJ release.

Dougherty also threatened the Western District of Pennsylvania U.S. District Court Judge Joy F. Conti by ordering “a sniper” to “shoot Conti in the head just to shut her up,” the release states.

He faces up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000 for the charges, according to the department of justice.

The U.S. Marshal Service, the FBI, the U.S Postal Inspection Service and the Pennsylvania Capitol Police investigated, according to the release.

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