A suburban man's vitriolic threats have led him straight to a guilty verdict in a federal courtroom. Robert Anthony Haas from Ottawa, Ill., has been convicted for sending threatening messages to a federal law enforcement officer and for posting equally inflammatory content online. Federal prosecutors laid out the evidence that Haas, 40, had on multiple occasions threatened violence against various public servants.
The trouble began for Haas when an FBI task force officer interviewed him after a complaint was made about his disturbing online posts. The harassment didn't stop offline, as Haas sent text messages and voicemails to the officer with messages like, "I'm not afraid to walk out my door in the morning. You should be however considering you support Jewish terrorism and your anti-American [expletive] is going to get you killed," as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois.
A jury in Chicago listened as prosecutors detailed five counts of threatening to assault or murder a federal official, in addition to eight counts of knowingly transmitting a communication containing a threat to injure another, as per the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois. It took them four days to decide to convict him on all charges. Each charge against Haas carries with it a severe potential penalty: up to ten years for each count of threatening a federal official and up to five years for the other threat counts.
Updates indicate sentencing is scheduled for November 3, and Haas could be facing a significant amount of time in prison. The conviction was a collaborative effort between state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, the State Police, and the Ottawa Police Department, with assistance from the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erin Kelly and Barry Jonas, who aimed to prove not just the threat but the intention behind it, and succeeded to evidently accomplish just that," said U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch, Jr.
