Man who threatened Lake County courthouse deemed mentally unfit
A California man was deemed mentally unfit to understand his sentencing for threatening to "light up" the Lake County courthouse and Gurnee police station, a Lake County judge ruled Tuesday.
Daniel Pederson, 34, of Calabasas, California, will be sent to the Illinois Department of Human Services facility in Elgin to undergo treatment. The sentencing hearing will resume after he is deemed fit to understand court proceedings, Judge Mark Levitt said.
Pederson was found guilty in March on one count of making a terrorist threat during a phone call to the Illinois Department of Health and Family Services on Sept. 12, 2014, Assistant State's Attorney Ben Dillon said.
However, his April sentencing hearing was halted when Levitt questioned whether Pederson was mentally fit to understand the court proceedings. That decision led to a mental health screening and the fitness hearing Tuesday. During the hearing, Pederson routinely interrupted proceedings to argue with his attorneys, prosecutors, and the judge about his mental fitness.
"I'm in trouble for things I haven't done, then you guys tell me I'm crazy," Pederson said during one of several outbursts. He also said he thought prosecutors and defense attorneys conspired against him at trial, and that he wanted to fire his appointed public defenders.
Pederson was accused of calling the health and family services department in 2014 after his driver's license was suspended for being behind on child support.
Dillon said Pederson told an operator who answered the phone, "I'm going to light up the Lake County courthouse and the Gurnee Police Department." The 37-second phone call was played at trial and was instrumental in Pederson being found guilty of making a terrorist threat.
He was due to face 6 to 30 years at sentencing.
The case against Pederson was supposed to have ended after he previously pleaded guilty to felony disorderly conduct and was sentenced to time served in Lake County jail. But after returning to California, Pederson filed paperwork to withdraw the guilty plea.
That motion was accepted, the charges were reinstated, and Pederson was returned to the Lake County jail.