Threats Against Judges, Lawyers on the Rise

March 10, 2008 — -- In response to the growing number of threats against federal judges and prosecutors, federal marshals plan to monitor people who have already threatened state and local government officials.

Threats and other "inappropriate communications" with federal judges and prosecutors are on track to rise this fiscal year for the fifth straight year, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Michael Prout, the Marshals Service deputy assistant director for judicial operations, said people who have threatened local or state government officials may also pose a danger to federal judges.

Frequently, he said, those who threaten federal judges have already been investigated by other state or local law enforcement agencies for similar threats -- a fact that has not always been shared with the Marshals Service.

"There will continue to be a rise [in threats] until we get a cohesive strategy between the Marshals Service and state and local entities to combat these threats against public officials," he said.

The annual number of so-called inappropriate communications to federal judges and prosecutors has risen 69 percent since 2003, with 1,145 such communications last fiscal year, according to the Marshals Service, which protects the country's 2,000 federal judges and 5,000 federal prosecutors. As of the end of February, there have been 525 recorded threats, Prout said.

"There seems to be a feeling of defiance toward many institutions that formerly were considered out of bounds," said U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson, who is a member of the committee on judicial security for the Judicial Conference of the United States. "People are more brazen today."

Prout and Hudson said there has been more sensitivity among judges and marshals to threats after the 2005 murders of Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and mother.

After the Lefkow tragedy, Prout says the Marshals Service began to reinvent the process by which it tracks and combats threats.

A new secure Threat Management Center, which opened in September, serves as a centralized information processing hub that enables deputy marshals and intelligence specialists to better track and analyze cases across the country.

The service is also beginning to train local and state law enforcement officers to protect judges and plans to investigate threats against local and state officials, if asked by local authorities, Prout said.

In addition, the service also hopes to secure funding to build a comprehensive national database to monitor threats on the local, state and federal levels -- which Hudson called integral to protecting government officials.