Libertyville man gets 6 months in federal prison for mailing threats to judges

A Libertyville man has been sentenced to six months in federal prison for sending threatening letters to judges in Texas and Florida, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

James LeBuhn, 66, mailed letters to U.S. District Court judges in Amarillo, Texas, and Fort Pierce, Florida, last year, authorities said.

The letters read, “THE CITIZENS DO NOT LIKE WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO OUR DEMOCRACY. THEY KNOW WHO YOU ARE,” according to federal prosecutors.

LeBuhn also sent photographs of two ammunition rounds and the words, “BE CAREFUL. THE LEVEL OF ANGER IS RISING,” prosecutors said.

LeBuhn was charged in March with two counts of sending threatening communications to federal judges. He also mailed similarly threatening letters to employees of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C., prosecutors said.

LeBuhn pleaded guilty earlier this year in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois to two counts of mailing a threatening communication. On Tuesday, Judge Sara L. Ellis sentenced LeBuhn and fined him $5,000.

“Judges are empowered and entrusted to make difficult and controversial decisions on cases and controversies before them,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard M. Rothblatt argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “The public may vehemently disagree with those decisions, and there are myriad ways for individuals to communicate such disagreement under the First Amendment. True threats of violence, and the fear and disruption they cause, have consequences and will not be tolerated.”