CLEVELAND, April 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- William J. Edwards,
Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and C.
Frank Figliuzzi, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Cleveland, Ohio, today announced that a eight-count indictment was filed
charging David A. Tuason of Pepper Pike, Ohio, with two counts of
transmitting threatening interstate communications and six counts of
mailing threatening communications.
The indictment alleges that Tuason engaged in an elaborate scheme of
sending racially-motivated threatening communications via the United States
Postal Service and electronic mail intended to threaten and intimidate with
bodily injury African-American males known to affiliate with white females.
The indictment alleges that an Associate Justice of the United States
Supreme Court, athletes, and entertainers received threatening
communications. The indictment also alleges that at times, children of
mixed racial parents were also targeted. The indictment alleges that the
threatening communications were sent to victims across the United States as
well as locally in the Cleveland, Ohio area.
The indictment alleges that Tuason, at times, threatened to blow up the
facility or building in which the targeted victim was located. The
indictment does not use the full names of the victims as federal law, Title
18, United States Code, Section 3771(a)(8), encourages prosecutors to
respect victims' privacy rights. The Department of Justice requests that
everyone respect these rights.
The maximum potential penalty for conviction on the threatening
communication charge is 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and three
years of supervised release following any period of incarceration on the
count involving the Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
and five years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised
release on each of the other counts. The court may determine the actual
sentence under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which depend upon a
number of factors unique to each case, including the defendant's prior
criminal record, if any, his role in the offense and the characteristics of
the violation. The actual sentence may be less than the statutory maximum.
The case was presented to the grand jury and is being prosecuted by
Assistant United States Attorneys Dean M. Valore and Benita Y. Pearson
following an extensive multi-year investigation by the FBI's Civil Rights
Squad in the Cleveland Field Office.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A
defendant is entitled to a fair trial at which it will be the government's
burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice
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Related links:
http://www.USDOJ.gov
CONTACT:
William J. Edwards of the Office of Acting
United States Attorney William J. Edwards, Northern District of
Ohio, +1-216-622-3651
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