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Feb. 29 (UPI) -- An Alabama man has been arrested and charged on allegations of threatening Arizona election officials over Instagram. Brian Jerry Ogstad, 59, of Cullman, Ala., was arrested Wednesday when he also made his initial court appearance in Huntsville where he was charged with five counts of communicating an interstate threat. If convicted, he faces up to five years for each count.
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"We cannot permit election skeptics to threaten vigilante justice," U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino for the District of Arizona said in a statement.
"We will continue to prosecute true threats against Arizona's election officials and other public servants, including direct messages sent on social media, or communications in any other format."
The indictment accuses Ogstad of sending the Instagram account of Maricopa County Elections 18 threatening messages via the social media smartphone application's direct messenger function over two days starting Aug. 2, 2022, when Arizona held its federal and state primary elections, including for governor.
The messages included death threats and were riddled with expletives and unfounded allegations that the officials were engaging in election fraud in the state's gubernatorial race. One of the messages included a picture of a toy doll of the character Woody from the Toy Story film franchise with an unidentified object protruding from its back.
"You [expletive] are so dead," he said in a message to the elections office, according to the court document. "You are lying, cheating mother [expletive]... you better not come in my church, my business or send your kids to my school," he allegedly said in another. "You are [expletive] stupid if you think your lives are safe."
The arrest comes amid an increase in threats directed at election officials.
The charges announced Wednesday are part of the Election Threats Task Force, which the Justice Department launched in June 2021 to address the surge.
Earlier this week, Andrew Nickels, 37, of Carmel, Ind., pleaded guilty to one count of making a threatening interstate communication over leaving voicemails threatening the life and family of a Michigan election worker.
William Hyde, 52, of San Diego, Calif., was charged with the same offense last week over leaving a threatening voicemail with a Maricopa County election official in November 2022.
"Public servants who administer our elections -- the cornerstone of our democracy -- must be able to do their jobs without fear," Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said Wednesday in a statement.
"The Criminal Division will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute those who target election officials and workers with threats of violence."
