KALAMAZOO, MI – A Lansing man was sentenced Tuesday, Oct. 10, to three years, one month in prison for threatening a federal judge.
Kevin Cassaday, 42, threatened U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney who had dismissed one of his many lawsuits against state and federal governments, elected officials and others.
U.S. District Judge Laurie Michelson, assigned to the Eastern District of Michigan, sentenced Cassaday after a jury found him guilty of threatening to assault or murder a federal official and two counts of interstate communications with a threat to kidnap or injure.
An assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan prosecuted the case after West Michigan prosecutors reported a possible conflict of interest.
Cassaday, arrested nearly two years ago, had filed 25 lawsuits in August 2021 in federal court against multiple defendants, including elected officials, state police, the FBI, former President Donald Trump and Facebook.
He threatened Maloney in a call to the judge’s chambers after Maloney dismissed his case against the federal government.
The FBI had Cassaday’s voicemails and recorded conversations with court staff in Lansing. Maloney generally works in Kalamazoo.
Defense attorney Haralambos Mihas said the trial showed that his client suffered from mental illness.
“Two things became evident from the trial … . The first was that the volume and vulgarity of Mr. Cassaday’s emails, filings and phone calls were one of the most extreme cases that the witnesses and law enforcement had seen. The second was the consensus that Mr. Cassaday was mentally ill and in distress when he made those threats,” Mihas wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
He said his client “was spiraling off an emotional cliff. He was desperate for help to alleviate his physical pain.”
Mihas asked that his client, who has been held nearly two years, be released on probation. Mihas said that prisons are wrongly used to house those who need help with mental illness.
Cassaday fell apart beginning in June 2021 and began filing lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions, initially over his inability to obtain medical marijuana, his attorney said. His lawsuits were routinely rejected.
After his arrest, it took nearly a year for his competency to be restored, his attorney said. All of his threats were made by phone or computer.
Christopher Rawsthorne, a special assistant U.S. attorney, said Cassaday has refused to take responsibility for his threatening behavior.
“His grievances were largely imaginary, but his threats were real. Cassaday’s threats disturbed and frightened those who sought only to do their jobs serving the public.”
He said investigators talked to Cassaday to stop the threats but the threats continued.
“There is no doubt that Cassaday’s mental illness contributed to this offense. But he has continued to refuse to recognize the consequences of his behavior and (Cassaday’s) refusal to take medication even when being restored to competency … is concerning.”
He called Cassaday’s lawsuits that led to the threats “nonsensical.”
He said Cassaday also made threats to the clerk of Court of Claims and Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wrigglesworth.
“Even Sheriff Wrigglesworth, whose law enforcement career spanned over two decades, had not received a direct threat of this nature before, one that promised not just to kill him but also his family,” Rawsthorne wrote.
He wrote that it was unclear why Casssaday targeted the sheriff in a series of messages. One said: “You want me to kill, I will start with you and your family as you all have mine … .”
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