Man serving 9-year sentence for threatening judge admits to threatening another

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A Bureau of Prisons inmate currently serving a 112-month federal prison sentence for mailing a threat to murder a U.S. magistrate judge admitted to a similar crime Thursday.

Richard L. Russell, 57, pleaded guilty Thursday to making several threats, including threatening to blow up the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse in downtown St. Louis. He also admitted to threatening to kill a federal judge and a former federal probation officer.

Officials at the downtown St. Louis courthouse got two hand-written death threats in June of 2022. Both letters were signed by the inmate.

Russell sent the letters to retaliate against the officials who worked on his previous court cases, a written release from the United States Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Illinois said.

“He threatened the judge who sentenced him to 112 months’ imprisonment and the former probation officer who supervised him,” the release said. “Russell mailed the letters from the Grady County Criminal Justice Authority, a BOP transfer facility located in Chickasaw, Oklahoma.”

U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe applauded the U.S. Marshals Service for investigating and thwarting the threats.

“Threats against the lives of federal judges and probation officers will be met with equally severe punishment,” U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe said. “The defendant intended to disrupt operations and endanger workers at the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse.”

Russell faces two counts of retaliating against a federal official, two counts of mailing threatening communications and one count of threatening to destroy a building by fire or explosion.

Each charge is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and fines up to $250,000 per count.

“Federal judges, probation officers and prosecutors with the Eastern District of Missouri are recused from this case, ” the release said.