Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
(12-29) 13:29 PST SACRAMENTO -- A Butte County man has been indicted
on federal charges for allegedly making a series of threatening phone
calls to hotels, a rabbi, a Jewish history museum and a church, saying
he planned to kill people or destroy buildings.
Scott Roberts Hudson, 52, of Paradise has a previous federal
conviction from 1999 for threatening to kill Randy Johnson, a pitcher
at the time for the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team, and to cut off
his genitals, court records show. Hudson served 34 months in prison or
in a halfway house in that case.
The new charges, handed down Thursday by a federal grand jury in
Sacramento, accuse Hudson of calling people between August and
November. The indictment includes seven counts of threats to use fire
or explosives and two counts of making threatening communications.
Hudson was arrested on Dec. 20. Earlier this year, his mother told
investigators that her son suffered from mental illness and "does not
take his medication," FBI Special Agent Kristy Martinez wrote in an
affidavit.
In August, the defendant allegedly called St. Mary's University in
Rochester, Minn., five times. In one call that was taped, Hudson said
a religious group in Germany was going to "burn to the ground"
St. Mary's buildings "in a shocking penetration of God's peace," the
affidavit said.
In August and September, the defendant threatened to kill Greg Laurie,
the pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside who is known
for his public evangelical events called Harvest Crusades, authorities
said. In several phone calls, Hudson said he believed Laurie should
be "6 feet under" and that "I'm the one that can put him there," the
affidavit said.
On Sept. 3, when former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel
was visiting Philadelphia, the city's National Museum of Jewish
History received a phone call in which Hudson threatened to shoot a
museum official in the head and set fire to the building, authorities
said.
On Oct. 13, Hudson threatened to set fire to the Ben David Messianic
Jewish Congregation in Orange (Orange County), the indictment said.
On Oct. 29, Hudson called a Hilton hotel in New York City and said,
"Sunday I will bomb the Hilton New York and the new World Trade Center
will also come down. All Jews will also burn," the affidavit said. He
allegedly called the hotel two more times over the next week, making
similar threats, authorities said.
On Nov. 3, Hudson, claiming to be calling from Hamburg, Germany,
called the Westin Hotel in New York and said a bomb would go off on
Nov. 11, the affidavit said.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
URL:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/12/29/BAGC5NA29835.DTL
Copyright 2006 San Francisco Chronicle
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Henry Lee, SF Chronicle (sfca@telecom-digest.org)